10 minute mung bean soup

10 minutes. I really, and somewhat accidentally, made this yellow mung bean soup in 10 minutes. I pressure cooked the mung beans in my Fagor Multi-Cooker for 4 minutes, and while the pot was building pressure and cooking, I tadka-ed the spices. I even had time to melt a little goat cheddar with avocado on a spelt tortilla.

Ingredients:

1 cups split yellow mung beans, soaked overnight and rinsed
6 cups water
4 TBS ghee
½-1 tsp brown mustard seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1 pinch hing
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
5 curry leaves, fresh or dried
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp curry powder
½-1 tsp Himalayan mineral salt

Method:

Soak mung beans overnight and rinse thoroughly. Pressure cook mung beans on high for 4 minutes, or low for 10 minutes. While mung beans are pressure cooking, now its time to tadka!

Tadka, or tempering, involves sautéing or roasting spices to release their aromatic oils and thus enhancing the flavor and depth of a spice. This technique is what gives Indian dishes their amazing flavorful complexity.

In a large soup pot, add the ghee and sauté the whole spices (mustard, cumin) until they begin to pop. Turn down the heat and add the garlic and continue sautéing until it browns slightly. Then add the spice powders (hing, turmeric, curry powder) and cilantro and curry leaves and sauté another 60 seconds.

When mung beans are done cooking, add them to the sautéed (tadka-ed) spices. Add the salt, stir, and cook for another two minutes. Garnish with some fresh cilantro and serve. 

Mung Beans are an Ayurvedic staple, and are one of the easiest foods to digest and promotes detoxification in the GI Tract. This recipe is tri-doshic although those with Pitta imbalances could eliminate/reduce the amount of mustard seed for a less heating effect.

This recipe is my take on a soup from the Ayurvedic cookbook classic, Ayurvedic Cooking for Self-Healing by Usha & Vasant Lad