Mung Dal Mondays

Mung beans were huge in my childhood! Whole, split, sprouted and always delightfully spiced, we would have Mung in various ways every Monday night for dinner with hot chapatti.

I would just like to add that it is untraditional in Gujarati cuisine to add vegetables to your mung dal (certain other dals such as toor dal yes) and vegetables are usually served as accompaniments, or salads but I do love to add a few finely chopped veggies and greens into the pot for speedy one pot weeknights with a chopped salad and some rice or dosa.

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Ingredients:

1 C Mung Dal (split yellow mung beans)

2 Tomatoes

~1.5L Water, or more if needed

1/4 Tsp ground Turmeric or 1 Tbsp Finely grated/chopped fresh Turmeric

Tadka/Tempering:

Tadka or tempering is when whole or ground spices are heated in oil and added to a dish. This can be done either at the beginning or end of a meal.

2 Tbsp Ghee or Olive Oil

1/4 tsp Cumin

1/4 Tsp Black Mustard Seeds

1 Tsp Garam Masala

1 Onion, finely chopped (optional or Asafoetida, see below)

Pinch of Asafoetida (used in Indian cuisine instead of onion)

1 Tbsp Ginger peeled and finely chopped/grated/minced

1/2 Tbsp Garlic peeled and finely chopped/grated/minced

1-2 Medium Green Chillies, finely chopped

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Veggies to add in the final 10 minutes of simmering

Lime or Lemon Juice to taste

1/2 Tsp Salt (perhaps more to taste)

Instructions:

Prepare the dal: Soak the dal in a large bowl for an 1 hour (or overnight). Give the soaked dal a good rinse with fresh water, then tip the drained dal into a pot.

Add tomatoes, turmeric and 5 cups of water, and bring to the boil over high. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until very tender, 15-20 min and skim of any foam that appears.

Prepare the tempering:

In your smallest saucepan you have over a low heat, warm the oil. When hot, carefully add all of the tempering ingredients and swirl the pan until you can smell the toasted spices. Pour everything over the hot dal and stir in. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Taste and adjust with salt.

Add lemon juice and fresh coriander just before it is going to be served. SO good served with beautiful salad, rice or dosa/chapati and squeezes of lemon.

Note on soaking

I like to soak split legumes (and grains) for at least 30 min-1 hour. Soaking enables them to absorb water, to increase digestibility and to reduce cook time. You can soak split legumes overnight too. Samin Nostrat observes that larger legumes such as kidney, cannellini, chick peas etc benefit from an even longer soak such as 48 hours to ensure the beans are cooked really evenly. If you really would like to get into legume cookery. Great info on cooking legumes on the Old Bay Leaves, New Bae Arrives episode of the Home Cooking podcast. They are all so funny.

Dehydrating to take into the great outdoors

If you plan to dehydrate this then you might want to leave out the veggies and coriander as the dal gets pulsed in the food processor and this may affect the colour. You could dehydrate veggies separately.