Mung Beans are healthy little pebbles, great for detoxing, revitalisation and general health. In fact it is said that if you eat a simple mung bean soup each day your life will change. Mung beans are an important ingredient in Ayurveda, and as they have an inherent sweetness, they can be cooked without a lot of spices and flavourings.

You might also like to try Green Mung Dal Soup with Asparagus and Tomatoes, ISKON Easy Mung Dal, or Stir fried Mung Bean Sprouts. You can browse all of our pasta recipes here and here.

“Mung bean soup pacifies all three doshas and is nutritious yet easy to digest. Mung Bean Soup recipe is used to clear even the most chronic, troublesome digestive issues and used to enhance overall health and vitality.”

I have a friend who makes a Mung Bean Soup, and I love it. I now make it in my rice cooker on the slow cook option. Her version is very very simple, cooking 2 or 3 spices along with the mung, adding a little ghee at the end, and serving as is.

We’ve been making this Mung Bean Soup for decades, so it appears here as part of our retro series – recipes from our first blog from 1995 – 2006. But it is also cross-posted on our Life Time of Cooking site.

Mine goes like this – I like to add spices for their own medicinal effect.

How to Make a Simple Green Mung Dal and a Simple Mung Soup

If you are using the slow cooker option of your rice cooker, cook a cup of whole mung beans, 1 stick cinnamon and 1/2-1 tspn turmeric in 4 or 5 cups water for 9 hours. Pour the cooked beans into a saucepan and bring to a simmer on the stove. Simmer for 5 mins.

If you are cooking on the stovetop, cook 1 cup of whole mung beans, 1 stick cinnamon and 1/2-1 tspn turmeric in 6 cups water for 1/2 – 1 hours until the beans are mushy, topping up the water if needed to end up with a soupy consistency.

When the beans are cooked and simmering on the stove, add to the soup 2 tspns Garam Masala, 1 tspn cardamom powder and 1/2 tspn black pepper and stir.

Now heat 2 tspns or so of ghee in a small pan. Add 1 tsp mustard seeds and allow to pop. Add 1 tspn cumin, 1tsp ajwain and pinch asafoetida and after a moment add some grated fresh ginger and a garlic clove finely chopped or pressed through a garlic press. Pour the ghee and spices into the soup.

Stir, take off the heat, cover and leave for 5 minutes for the flavours to develop. Serve over rice or as a soup.

recipe notes

You can also add some finely chopped veg to the soup.

A squeeze of lime is also very nice. Top the dal with chopped green coriander.

The ajwain and asafoetida is optional, also the garlic and ginger.

If you have it, add pipperli (Indian long pepper) while the dal is cooking.

You can also make a simple soup by cooking the mung dal with some turmeric powder, then adding a tadka of 2 or 3 spices. These can vary, but often I use mustard seeds, cumin or fennel seeds, 2 dried red chillies, maybe some fenugreek and some curry leaves.

Enjoy!

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