Both Matki sprouts and Horse Gram sprouts are highly nutritious, and fairly easy to sprout if you are careful. For these sprouts, I prefer to wrap the soaked lentils/beans in muslin cloth and place in a dark cupboard for 24 – 48 hours, sprinkling with water occasionally.

One way of using the Matki sprouts is to make Misal – a gravy based dish that is often eaten with bread but can be served with rice. The matki sprouts don’t take as long to cook as the horse gram sprouts do – under 15 mins to be soft but with a little texture still. Just how I like it.

Similar dishes include Carrot and Mung Sprout Kosumalli, Sprouts Usal, and Black Gram Sprouts Sundal.

Browse all of our Matki dishes, and all of our Misal recipes. All of our Indian recipes are here, and our Indian Essentials are here. Or explore our Early Autumn recipes.

Matki Sprouts Misal

ingredients

sprouts made from 200g matki beans (moth beans)

1 onion, chopped finely or pureed

2 tspn ghee

paste

2 tomatoes

1 – 2 green chillies, or to taste

1 – 2 Indian dried red chilli, or to taste

1 knob ginger

2 garlic cloves

0.5 tspn black mustard seeds

0.5 tspn cumin seeds

0.25 tspn turmeric powder

1 tspn coriander powder

0.5 tspn misal masala, goda masala or garam masala

sea salt to taste

juice of 0.5 – 1 lime

garish, optional

wedges of lime

onion rings

coriander leaves

farsan

sev

method

Grind or finely chop the onion and set aside, then grind the ingredients in paste, and set that aside.

Heat the ghee in a kadhai or pan and add the onion and saute until browned. Add the tomato-chilli paste and saute until well cooked and the oil is separating a little.

Add water to bring to the desired consistency – you want it to be thin enough to simmer the sprouts. Add the turmeric, coriander powder and misal spice powder or garam masala with a little salt. Mix well.

Add the sprouts and simmer for around 15 mins until the sprouts are tender.

Remove from the heat and squeeze the lime juice over the misal. Garnish with coriander, onion rings, lime wedges, farsan and/or sev, and serve. Goes well with rice, pav, bread, flatbread, roti.

recipe notes and alternatives

I love to chop some lime into tiny pieces (including peel) and mix through the cooked dish. The pops of sour flavour through the dish is wonderful.