Vegan Indian Week Day 5: Tamatar Mung Dal

Soup With Roasted Mung Beans and Tomatoes

served with aloo paratha, stuffed with spiced potatoe

Some tips before we start again:

I like to use my cast-iron wok, cooking something acidic like tomatoes in it can increase iron content as much as 20 times, which doesn’t hurt at all when living a vegan lifestyle.

There is a difference between cumin and caraway.
Caraway is darker and the taste is more bitter and mint or anis like. Indian cumin adds an earthy and warm feeling to the taste. The sankrit word जीरकम् or jeerakam literary means that which helps digestion, a characteristic of cuminaldehyde.

I have a small microplane spice grater, but I prefer to grate my ginger with a paring knife.

one of three knifes every chef should have

Its much faster even with my moderate knife skills and the ginger does not clump when you toast it.
The technique is the same as dicing onions.

less hassle and you train your knife skills

Cooking and preparing time is one hour and the recipe for 4-6 servings.

before the transcendental experience

200 g mung beans
1.9 l water
3 indian laurel leaves
1 T. vegan margarine
2 ½ t. salt
2 T. coconut fat
1 t. black mustard seeds
1 t. indian cumin
2 crushed dry chillies
2 t. freshly minced ginger
¼ t. asafetida
1 t. curcuma
5 middle sized tomatoes, finely chopped
2 T. lemon juice
1 T. chopped parsley

Weed out the mung and put unwashed in a pot, roast for 4 minutes on medium and stear regularly.

roasted mung dal with stil a couple of green ones left

If the majority of the beans turns brown, pour into a metal sieve and wash with cold water. Put back into pod, add water, indian laurel leaves, vegan margarine and salt. Bring to boil, put lid on and cook on medium for 30 minutes.

When the dal gets soft, heat the coconut fat in a small pan and add the black mustard seeds. Cover with lid and wait til the popping stops.

Then quickly add the spices in this order: cumin, chilli, ginger, asafetida and curcuma. Stir and toast for 20 seconds.

Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for another two minutes.

Pour into the soup, cover and cook on small flame til the dal is overcooked into a mush.

At the end add lemon juice and chopped parsley. Stir and serve hot with rice or indian breadstuff.

Bona appetita!