Simple Vegetarian Recipe for Mung Beans

Mongo dish is one favorite dish of the Filipinos usually prepared and cooked every Friday of the week. There is an old folklore saying that mongo is good and tasty when cooked on a Friday. Peculiar but it is also the best favorite preparation every Good Friday because it said that it is a meat-less day. The folks here usually cooked mongo with meat chunks but the average families prepare to substitute dried fish like tinapa or dilis for the meat.

SIMPLE VEGETARIAN RECIPE FOR MUNG BEANS

Mung Bean dish is one favorite dish of the Filipinos usually prepared and cooked every Friday of the week. There is an old folklore saying that mung beans (we called it here mongo) is good and tasty when cooked on a Friday. Peculiar but it is also the best favorite preparation every Good Friday because it said that Good Friday is a meat-less day. The folks here usually cooked mongo with meat chunks but the average families prepare to substitute dried fish like tinapa or dilis for the meat.

This earthly dish consists of dried mung beans added to a medley of sautéed vegetables – garlic, onions and tomatoes. I soak the dried mung beans overnight to soften the beans and lessen the time of cooking. At the final minutes of cooking, I do suggest a variety of healthy greens to add for your mongo dish – the very nutritious malunggay leaves (moringa oelifera) which is rich in vitamin A or the bitter melon leaves which give a kick of bitterly taste. Others substitute spinach.

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Nursing mothers prepare mongo with malunggay leaves because researches and studies revealed that this green enriches the quantity of milk among nursing mothers.

Persons suffering from gout and arthritis avoid eating legumes and beans because it afflicts pain in their joints. Doctors’ advice gout patients that beans are consider medium purine foods and can be eaten with moderation.

Ingredients: (serve 4-6)

1 cup whole dried mung beans

5 tablespoons vegetable oil

5 gloves of garlic peeled and lightly minced

2 medium size onions peeled and chopped

3 large/medium size red tomatoes sliced 4 pieces each

1 cup leaves of malunggay washed or 2 cups ampalaya leaves (bitter melon leaves) washed

6 small cubes of fried (tokwa) tofu or soy bean curd (optional)

Ground pepper and Salt to taste

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Clean and rinse the mung beans very well. Put the beans and around 5 cups of water into a pot and boil. Boil till the beans are tender. Some like the beans boiled to crushed so to have sticky soup. Stir constantly to prevent sticking. Turn heat to low.

Heat the vegetable oil in a deep frying pan over medium heat. When hot, put the garlic and stir till light brown and then add the onions. Stir and sauté them until turn translucent. Add the tomatoes. Stir till tomatoes just start to catch. Add the cooked mung beans and simmer. Now add the green of your choice and salt to taste. Simmer and stir regularly till the greens are cooked. Add fried (tokwa) tofu (optional). Serve with rice and soy sauce with kalamansi juice.

I usually add cumin seeds in my mung bean dish which I learned from my Indian friends.

Reference:

Ronthoughts Journal – Vegetarian Cooking

http://www.everydiet.org/diet/gout-diet

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