Mung beans are the most easily digestible pulse. As they require less energy for digestion, there is more energy available for us to use! They are renowned for their cleansing, healing and strengthening properties and are balancing for vata, pitta and kapha, which makes them the ideal food for a detox. The whole beans are green in colour and need soaking, you can also buy split mung beans from Indian shops – they are yellow and do not need soaking. As a rule of thumb use 3 parts water to one part beans.
Green Mung Soup
[ctu_ultimate_oxi id=”1″]
Kitcharee
Kitcharee is a blend of split mung and rice cooked together with spices. It is light and easy to digest and therefore is an ideal food for re-balancing and gently detoxing.
Quantities are for 1-2 people. These spices are for a warming kitcharee. A simpler version can be made with less spices e.g asafoetida, cumin, ginger, coriander and turmeric or cumin, ginger and turmeric.
[ctu_ultimate_oxi id=”2″]
Creamy Mung Soup
1 cup of mung dal (split mung)
2-3 cups courgette/squash etc
3 parts water
5-7 curry leaves
3 kokum
1 tsp mustard seeds
3 tsp ghee
1 pinch hing (asafoetida)
3 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp tumeric
2 tsp grated ginger root
1/2 cup coconut milk
small pieces of vegetable eg. cauliflower/broccoli, red pepper/carrot
Fresh coriander.
Wash the mung dal well and cook with the water, curry leaves and kokum until soft. remove kokum pieces and blend.
In a seperate pan fry the mustard seeds in ghee until they begin to pop, then turn off the heat before adding the asafoetida and other spices. Next add the coconut milk and small vegetable pieces. Season well and add more water/liquid from the cooked mung and simmer for 5 mins until the vegetables are just tender.
Add the blended mung and warm thoroughly. Serve with plenty of chopped coriander. Delicious!
Middle Eastern Mung Soup
Serves four.
1 cup split mung beans, washed
3-4 cups chopped vegetables eg. courgette, celery, pepper, carrot, fennel
1 tablespoon ghee
1-2 tsp cumin seeds
1 small red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Yeast free vegetable stock
A little lemon juice to taste
Chopped parsley to garnish
Cook the split mung and chopped vegetables in plenty of water until soft.
Fry the cumin seeds for 2 minutes in the ghee, then add the onion and fry gently until golden and soft. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant.
Add the cooked mung, season well and cook for a few minutes more. Blend with a hand blender. Add lemon juice and chopped parsley before serving.
Yellow mung dal
1 cup split mung beans (no need to soak)
3 cups water
1 tbsp Ghee
½ tsp Mustard seeds
3 Cardamon crushed
Pinch of Asafoetida
2 cloves Garlic, crushed
1 inch Ginger, grated
½ tsp Tumeric
2 tsp Coriander
½ tsp mild Curry powder (Waitrose do a chilli-free mild madras)
1/3 cup Coconut milk
2 handfuls Spinach or 1 handful fresh coriander
Cook the mung beans until soft.
Fry the first group of spices for a few minutes, then add the garlic etc and fry 2 more minutes. Add the coconut milk, cooked dal and salt to taste and cook together for a few minutes. Stir in the spinach/coriander just before serving. Serve with basmati rice.