In the midst of all this frigid winter weather, I went on a soup tear during one of my snow/ ice days home from work. It wasn’t even planned. I just started thinking about the ingredients sitting in our pantry that needed to be used before we move and suddenly, I was cooking for a few hours. It started with the idea to make black beans and rice. Well, we didn’t have black beans but I found more rice in our black bean container. I have these gorgeous Fleur de Lis canisters by Mud Pie from Fleurty Girl that hold our black beans, rice, and sugar. We are planning to get a second set for coffee and other pantry staples plus they have some other gorgeous serving items that fit in well with our design scheme.
Gorgeous, right? So, black beans were scrapped since we had none but I remembered we had white beans so I decided to make those in the same way I would make the black beans: started with rendered bacon and then spiced Tex-Mex style with lots of cumin and chili powder. Then I came to a jar of mung beans that had been sitting and waiting to made into something yummy.
Really, I don’t know if curried mung dal is any sort of technical name for this dish but I made it in the same way I tend to make my garam masala and other curries, so we will stick with it. What this is is a highly digestible, filling, warming meal. Also, without the rice that is easily cooked up in my awesome Zojirushi rice cooker, this is a one pot dish. Since I needed the rice to go with the white beans, it was multi-purpose. I also ended up making a pot of corn chowder that went fast, so one pot of rice (always long grain, organic, GMO free brown rice for us, unless we get a nice wild rice) was doing triple duty.
As far as I know, mung dal is used widely in Indian culture as one of the most prevalent lentils. It is highly digestible, so it is great for the body when the weather is brutal and viruses are every where. How I prepare it can easily be made into a soup, though I left it less soupy and more substantial this time. Somehow that makes it feel more filling, even if it ends up being the same amount of food per serving. While mung dal, like most legumes, should be soaked overnight, I use a little cheat method: bring to a boil for 3-4 minutes, let sit for 3-4 hours, drain, and then cook as normal. This is far easier to handle on a weekend day (or even a weekday) when you didn’t plan a night in advance.
The seasonings and flavors of this dish also lend to wellness. Plenty of ginger to soothe stomachs clenched from walking precariously on ice, garlic to boost immunity, turmeric to reduce inflammation after falling on the aforementioned ice, coconut milk to add a good, healthy fat and help with absorption of the turmeric, and some carrots thrown in for betacarotene. This is a powerhouse recipe!
Curried Mung Dal
- 1 tablelspoon coconut oil
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, diced
- 1 inch ginger, diced or shredded
- 3 carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 cup mung dal, soaked overnight
- 1 quart vegetable or chicken stock (homemade is always best and super easy! You can find my instructions here.)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 14 oz cans coconut milk
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- Dash of cayenne powder to taste (or feel free to add in some chopped fresh spicy peppers when cooking the carrots)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Melt coconut oil in medium sized pan and cook onions over medium heat until clear. Add garlic, ginger, and carrots. Cook approximately 3-4 minutes. Add tomato paste, cinnamon, turmeric, and cumin and cook for about 1 minute. Add stock and coconut milk, bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes, then add mung dal and cook until lentils are ready, approximately another 20-30 minutes. I usually test them either by taste or squishing them against the side of the pan and seeing if they give enough with little effort. Season to taste with cayenne, salt, and pepper.