I am a huge fan of mung beans/moong dhall. I call it mugh and used to eat it probably once a week, every Monday, since I was born.

My mother made it with brown rotli or rice, fried potatoes, fried bhindi or karela. I make it with spinach fritters and I eat my mugh like a soup. It’s delicious on cool days like today.

Did you know: Mung beans is part of the legume family. It’s peel is green but its insides is yellow in colour. Mung bean paste is hella popular in India apparently and many people in Asia make ice-cream from the peeled beans. Watch this space.

Moong dhall

Ingredients

1 cup pre-soaked Moong dhall (soak overnight or at least 2 hours before cooking)

3 peeled and grated tomatoes

1 medium onion diced

2 bay leaves

1 tsp jeera seeds

1 tsp ginger grated

1 tsp garlic diced

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp dhania powder

1/4 tsp tumeric powder

2 tsp chillie powder or less if you don’t eat spicy

salt to your taste

fresh coriander

1/2 tsp hing (Asafoetida)

2 green chillies crushed

1 stalk of curry leaves

Method

1. In a pressure cooker/pot fry your bay leaves and jeera until it starts to splutter

2. Add onion and fry until it’s translucent

3. Add garlic and ginger and then the chillies

4. Add tomatoes, garam masala, chillie powder, tumeric, dhania powder

5. Let the mixture sautee until you see the oil draw away from the tomatoes.

6. Add the mung beans and then 5 cups of water to your pot.

7. Add salt to taste and pressure cook for 15 minutes on medium to high heat. If you’re using a normal pot boil until the dhall is soft.

8. If the curry looks dry at any point, add a little hot water but don’t let the beans get runny.

9. Finally, temper the curry by heating up a little oil and a pinch of jeera in a tiny pot. Add your hing and some curry leaves.

10. Pour the mixture into your dhall pot quickly and close it fast.

11. You can make this recipe in bulk and freeze for more than 3 months.

Spinach fritters

Ingredients

150g spinach blized in a food processor (chopped finely)

1 onion chopped finely

1/2 cup chickpea flour

1/4 cup water

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 tsp salt

Mix everything in a bowl and in a pan laced with Spray-And-Cook drop spoonfuls of batter into the pan and fry on medium heat for about 3 minutes each side. Try not to eat it all before you serve it. They’re very addictive.