Moong Dal

Moong is Hindi for mung and Dal is Hindi for (in the broadest sense) cooked beans, but as is the case with most Indian dishes, it’s much more than that.

Whole dried mung beans, like the type I used in my dal, are small and olive green in color. They’re found throughout Asia and India in a multitude of dishes including soups, curries, even desserts. They  cook quickly without any pre-soaking needed, and are full of good nutrients in addition to being easy to digest. You may find them in bulk at natural food markets and at Asian and Indian grocers.    

I started by frying a diced yellow onion in organic ghee (Indian clarified butter) which imparted a rich, deep buttery flavor to the onions. When they were translucent, I added some minced garlic, diced chilies, and grated fresh ginger, allowing just a moment or two of frying. The last thing you’ll want to do to garlic or ginger is burn them, which turns them bitter and unappealing.

The spices were next;ground turmeric for a beautiful yellow color and a hint of bitterness followed by a teaspoon of “Flavour Masala”, a blend directly from Jodhpur, India. It is a mild mix with coriander cumin, fenugreek, and cardamom among others. It doesn’t have any cayenne for heat, so it’s bit sweet, but compliments the mung beans very well. I heated the spices just until fragrant, then added a can of diced tomatoes with their juices to start the base for the sauce. After about 10 minutes the tomatoes began to fall apart and blend with the other ingredients.

After rinsing the dried beans under cold running water, I added them along with a vegetable stock/water mixture to the pot and brought the whole thing to a boil. I turned the heat down, and simmered the dal for 15 minutes. I wanted a thicker consistency for the dal so I added a peeled medium white boiling potato, diced in ¼ “ pieces. The starch from the potato would cook out over the next 25 minutes and thicken the somewhat thin sauce. I also added a small carrot for color and because it needed to be cooked soon or be thrown out. I covered the pot, and let everything simmer until the potato and carrot were fully cooked and soft.

And there you have it. I’ll be enjoying my dal this week for lunch. In the photograph you’ll also see a katori of cooked aged basmati rice and a small bowl of mukhwas, sugar-coated fennel seeds and herbs traditionally taken after an Indian meal to aid digestion and make the breath kiss-ably sweet. The big silver object on the left is my Masala Dabba (Indian spice box), and the whole lot is resting on the burlap sack the basmati came in. And you’re reading the sack right, it really was "But 1 Get 1 Free’!