Sunday 5 June 2011

Detoxifying Green Mung Bean Soup


Just a quick post from me this evening after a rather busy weekend!

Here is a nutritious soup recipe from our cookbook of the month - Eat Right for your Body Type by Anjum Anand. This soup is widely recommended by Ayurvedic practitioners as it is said to be revitalising and revitalising for the body. The green mung bean's outer green skin is rich in minerals and has a cleansing action on the digestive tract. It is commonly used as a source of sustainance during Ayurvedic fasts.

Seeing as I'm expecting, fasting is definitely off the cards for me. I like it on its own for a light lunch now and then, or for dinner I sometimes make this a little thicker by reducing the amount of water and then I serve it with steamed rice and vegetables.

The following is an adapted recipe from the book and suits all doshas. Speaking of which - did you take the quiz I linked to at the end of my previous post on the book? How did you find it?


The basic soup (suits all doshas)

200g green mung beans, washed in several changes of water
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
750ml water
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder
rock salt, to taste
fresh coriander, chopped
lemon juice, to taste

Basic tarka (flavoured oil)
2 tsp ghee (clarified butter)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander


Method

1. Wash the mung beans thoroughly and then soak them either overnight or for at least 4 hours before cooking. Bring the lentils, fresh water and ground turmeric to a gentle simmer and cook until soft - around 30-40 minutes, adding more water if necessary.

2. Once the beans are cooked, heat the ghee in your smallest pan/saucepan, add the asafoetida ad allow to sizzle for 5 seconds. Add the cumin seeds and cook for 30 seconds until the seeds have darkened and become aromatic. Add the remaining spices, let them sizzle for 20 seconds then tip into your soup and stir through. Simmer for a further 5 minutes, add salt and lemon juice to taste. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander.



Till next time!

Ladybird x

9 comments:

  1. This sounds really lovely. I like the idea of serving it thicker with rice!

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  2. Having just come back from Melbourne where, on Saturday night, I indulged in ten desserts... detox soup sounds good ;)

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  3. I've always had mung beans in desserts- it's so strange to see them cooked in a savoury soup! :) This looks delicious though!

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  4. yeah i agree with von's comment - interesting to see it as a savoury dish! yea green beans is good for detox and 'cooling down' apparently! i think i need that right now after 2 full weeks of eating out ><

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  5. This screams healthy! What's asafetida? Never heard of it before..

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  6. Hello, thanks for your comments!

    Asafoetida is a pungent spice available in most spice stores. It is considered to be a digestive aid in indian cooking and, although it is rather stinky uncooked, its flavour becomes much more pleasant once cooked.

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  7. Just tried it and it's absolutely delicious! I didn't have Asafoetida so i replaced it by garlic.

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  8. The recipe suddenly mentions lentils, but they don't appear in the ingredients list. How much should I use?

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  9. Thank you for sharing this wonderful blog with us.This is really helpful and informative blog.Keep sharing these kinds of blogs.

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