green mung beans soups : two recipes from two different kitchens ..


Green mung bean is one of my favorite foods on earth. I can have it for a meal in any conceivable form. Soaked, sprouted, boiled or curried. Even a hummus made with green mung is loved. A thin crepe called pesarettu has been a long time favorite. But curried with minimal spices or made into a simple soup is the regular day to day way to enjoy green mung for me. Today I have a Mangalorean mooga ambat for you as well, contributed by a fellow blogger friend.

Green mung bean is also called golden gram or green gram and is among the quickest of lentils to cook. Green mung bean is known as the dosha balancing food according to Ayurveda, it cleanses the gut if taken regularly. Rich in minerals an some vitamins, the lentil has significant amount of soluble fiber that helps cleanse and heal the body at multiple levels.

I mostly make a soupy daal or a lightly spiced (curried) daal with green mung beans if I am not having them sprouted. Mung sprouts are mixed with other sprouts to get a great texture in salads and a wider range of amino acids available in the meal. See the ideas with mixed sprouts I wrote sometime back.

I am sharing a very simple green mung soup with coconut that doesn't require any tempering like other Indian daal recipes. I mostly have it as a one dish meal or combine it with some green vegetables on the side.

ingredients...
green mung beans 1 cup
salt to taste
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
tejpatta or bay leaves 2-3
fresh coconut chopped or grated 1/2 cup
cumin seeds 1 tsp
black pepper corns 1/2 tsp
green chilly 1 or to taste (optional)
ginger 1 inch piece (grated) or to taste
2 springs of curry patta leaves (optional)

preparation...

Boil the green mung beans in a pressure cooker with turmeric powder, salt, bay leaves and enough water to cook. You would need about 2.5 cups of water for 1 cup of mung. Use just 1.5 cup if you have soaked the mung for 3-4 hours or more. Mung daal needs cooking for 5-7 minutes after the first whistle blows in pressure cooker.

Make a paste of coconut, ginger, green chilies, cumin, black pepper corns and curry patta. The paste can be smooth or coarse to your liking. I prefer coarser paste as the bit of coconut is really nice.

Open the cooker after the pressure settles down on it's own and add the paste. Mix well, adjust seasoning and serve hot. You might like a squirt of lime juice over this soup.

I had it with red rice and ghee fried peppery okra this time.


You see how the soup is rich with coconut, simple flavors and yet so tasty and nourishing.

The other recipe is Mooga ambat that is a daal/soup made using mung sprouts. A blogger friend Renuka Nadkarni keeps sharing her native Mangalorean recipes on her blog (she posts a lot of baked desserts and many other recipes as well) and she informed me about this Mooga ambat when I asked my readers about more ideas with mung sprouts. I quickly asked her to share the recipe and here she is, in her own words.

Sprouts with a Mangalorean touch..



It all started off with a simple comment that I’d left on Sangeeta’s blog, telling her about a Mangalorean dish that we make with sprouts. The next thing I knew was a mail from her asking if I could please share the recipe via a Guest Post. I jumped at the chance.

Sometimes in Blogosphere you meet people who really make an impression. For me, Sangeeta is one of those. We met when we were paired in a food blogger goodie exchange and some of the stuff that she sent me was so thoughtful! In fact, I still have some of those lovely sun-dried apples. Ever since then I’ve been a follower and a very regular reader of her blog, the fact that she does so much of healthy and sensible cooking is something that strikes a chord with me. And her smoothie recipes, this post would be incomplete without that; they are just the most amazing things ever! Full of flavor and packed with nutrition, I’m hooked.

Coming to the dish that I’ve made for her space – Mooga ambat – this is a typical Mangalorean dish that’s made during any festive occasion at home. That doesn’t mean you can’t eat it otherwise! This is also called Mooga mola ambat, moog is moong (sprouted, as we say it in Hindi), mola (is the sprouted growth) and ambat is a dal-based curry that’s spiced with red chillies and is generally given a tadka of onions. I’ve also used a little onion while grinding the spice mixture to up the flavours, but you can eliminate this step if you don’t fancy onions too much.
This dish is best served with hot rice, some of us even like having this with idlies; all you need to go with this is some vegetable dish or even papad and pickle. What makes this dish a winner is that it is protein-heavy and packed with goodness.

ingredients for Mooga Ambat
¾ cup of moong, sprouted and steamed
1/2 cup of toor dal
½ an onion, finely chopped
1 tsp of ghee
Salt to taste
For the spice paste
1 tbsp of coconut
2-3 red chillies, roasted (I’ve used the Byadgi variety from Karnataka, you can change the number depending on your preference for spice)
3-4 methi seeds, roasted
1 small, marble-sized ball of tamarind
¼ of a medium-sized onion, roughly chopped


procedure..
Rinse the toor dal, drain off the excess water and place it in a bowl with 2 cups of water. Cook this dal in the pressure cooker till it is done.

Meanwhile, grind all the ingredients together for the spice paste along with some salt. Add 1tsp of moong to this along with 2 tbsp of warm water to get a smooth paste. If you don’t want to use coconut, you can replace this with some roasted Bengal gram dal or increase the amount of onions and sprouted moong while grinding.

After this when the dal has cooled down, remove it from the cooker, beat it well, add the sprouts to this and keep it on a medium flame. 

Now add the ground spice mixture to this and bring the entire thing to a gentle boil. Allow it to simmer for about 2 minutes, switch off the flame and check the seasoning.

In a separate pan heat ghee and fry the onions until they turn a nice golden brown. Add this tempering to the curry. Serve hot with some rice.
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Thank you Renuka for the sweet words and for the nutritious recipe. I would add some more coconut when I cook this and would have it like a meal with some subzi.

Do you need more reasons to have a nice mung bean soup for your meal today dear reader? Go cook it now.

Comments

  1. Sangeeta! Thanks :) It looks lovely, I'm going to try some of your mung recipes.. love the idea of green mung hummus, that's two of my favourite things coming together!

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  2. The second one is new to me and soon I shall try this one. Thanks Sangeeta.

    Joy always,
    Susan

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