Mung Bean

Mung bean and chicken

My dad tells me that we ate this on occasion when my grandfather would make a dish featuring this bean. It took ages for me to remember what my dad was referring to. In Uzbek cooking, this bean is called “mash” and my dad was referring to a dish called “mash-kichiri”. I can’t believe I forgot about this little gem. Apparently, this bean is extremely healthy in many ways. I wasn’t able to find it at my local grocery store, but did find it in bulk at the healthy/organic food store (Outpost, for those in my neck of the woods). Also, I bet Indian food stores would have it since it’s popular in Indian cuisine and is known as dal or dahl.
Since I don’t really have any recipes for what to do with this bean, I decided to improvise. Here is what I came up with.

Ingredients:
2 large Carrots
1 large Onion
1 cup uncooked Rice (I used brown rice)
Chicken stock
1 cup uncooked Mung beans (I soaked the beans overnight and the 1 cup uncooked looked more like 2-3 cups)
Spices (to taste): salt, pepper, cumin

Soaked Mung Beans

Carrots and Onions

Cooking Mung Bean

Mung bean and Rice

Steps:
1. Dice the carrots and onions. Cook rice according to package directions, stopping about half way through.
2. Saute the carrots and onions on a low heat for a few minutes until a little tender. Season to taste.
3. Add the beans and rice and chicken stock. Just enough chicken stock to continue cooking the rice.
4. Cover the pan and let cook over a low heat until all the liquid is gone, about 20 minutes.

I served this with the Updated Roasted Chicken.