Mung, or moong, is a green bean that’s popular over the Asian subcontinent, and very popular in our household! Mung is a good mix of proteins, carbs and fibre and is a staple food in India, where my family come from. It is popular among those who are vegetarian and vegan, so if you want a nutritional punch without the meat and dairy, this is the dish for you!
Growing up here in England, we had mung at least once a week! Traditionally, we had it with my mum’s delicious chappati, and my dad and I used to lap it up, by breaking the chappati up into little pieces and mixing it in the mung and digging in! My mum would also add yoghurt to the mung for thickness and taste, so I have continued with that but changed from dairy to soya yoghurt because of my lactose intolerance, acid reflux and IBS – believe me, the payback is definitely not worth it, not even a little bit… Think the film Bridesmaids…!
Nowadays, I am off the refined carbs due to my digestive issues with carbs and also my health and fitness reasons – there is a reason this is fitness food blog – which is my quest for a 6-pack! I am not that far off currently but I am going to motor on with this no refined carb and no dairy diet, it’s working for me both in terms of my health and fitness 🙂
One of the things I am trying to do is increase the nutritional value of all of our traditional dishes whilst removing the refined carbs. In this case I decided to add coloured vegetables in the form of chilli and peppers to increase the complex carbs and upped the protein by adding some tofu! The result is a delicious mix that has surprised me over and over again by how tasty it turned out, and it impressed my dear mother too! With my modifications, you get your protein, carbs and fibre, spice and taste all in one dish, what more could you ask for? 🙂
INGREDIENTS
1/2 onion
1/2 red onion
2 spring onions
3 cloves of garlic (I love garlic in my food)
1 cm of ginger
1 cm haldi (not tamarind as I say in the video, my apologies!)
1 red chilli
1 green chilli
1/2 long red pepper
1 long green pepper
1 fresh tomato
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
200g tofu
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 tablespoon dried coriander
100ml soya yoghurt
1 litre of filtered and boiled water
First full fresh coriander
2 saucepans, 1 medium, 1 small
INSTRUCTIONS
- In the large saucepan, add 500mL filtered boiling water and add in the 100 g mung. Stir, cover with lid and allow to boil on ¾ heat for at least 30 minutes, or until all the mung have split;
- Continue to check on the large saucepan every 10 minutes or so for water and stir (add more water if you need, and trust me, you will need to! With the rest of the boiled water in the kettle, prepare a cup of tea!);
- In the small saucepan slice and dice in the onions (hold back the green leaves of the spring onions until the end), add 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds and allow the onions to turn brown whilst stirring;
- Once the onions brown, add the garlic (I cut the garlic knobs up, press them in a garlic crusher and add them directly into the saucepan), chopped ginger, haldi and tomatoes, curry leaves and dried coriander;
- Continue to stir gently until the tomato cooks through;
- Check on the mung (should be done around the 30-minute mark), and if the mung beans have popped, add in the contents of the small saucepan, chop in the red and green chillies (add them later at point 8 if you want your mung less spicy) add ½ teaspoon of salt and stir;
- Turn the heat down to a quarter, taste the mung and add salt and black pepper to taste;
- Chop in the red and green peppers, stir and cover with the lid and to cook for about 5 minutes;
- Add the chopped tofu and spring onion leaves and cover for 5 minutes;
- Feel free to add any coriander to finish and you are ready to eat!
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Eating time: 15 minutes
Serves up to 4 people
I made enough for the next day as we had a busy weekend ahead!
Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback J