Mung Beans and Root Vegetables Soup: Mung Dal, Orissa

Split Skinless Mung Beans

Mung Beans and Root Vegetables Dal with a tempering of Cummin Seeds and Asafoetida powder.

This dish is East Indian, specifically from the state of Orissa and the recipe, courtesy our  friend and neighbour, Ms. P. This stew uses  skinless, split moong beans/mung beans, 'white' winter vegetables like radishes, turnips, potatoes and colocassia/chembu/arbi/arvi.  It does not use any spicing except for the final tempering with cummin seeds and asafoetida in Clarified Butter/Ghee. Perfect comfort soup/stew.


This combines winter vegetables in season, gives you control in the use of oil/butter [ :-)], is a hearty dish vegetarian dal with rice  and a touch of spicy pickle. Mung/Moong beans, according to ayurveda is 'cooling ' for the body. Traditionally mung/moong beans were used during the summer months. One drawback is that a small quantity goes along way. Too much causes a stomach ache.

This goes to Priya's Cooking With Seeds-Mung Beans Event. It also goes to:

• Deb's Souper Sunday's
• Kavi's, Healthy Cooking Challenge started by Smita
• Pari's 'Only Curries' event  guest hosted by Kamalika

Mung Dal with Winter Vegetables served with Chena-Payaru Upperi/ Elephant Yams and Chinese Long Beans

Serves Two-Three

Ingredients

Split Mung Beans, skinless-1/4 Cup

1/4 Cup of radishes cut into chunks

1/4 cup of Chembu/Arvi/Arbi/Colocassia
1/4 Cup of turnip chunks
[ you could also add potato chunks]

Salt
Optional: 1/4 tsp white pepper

For the Tempering

2tbsps of clarified butter/ghee

1 tsp of cummin seeds

2 pinches of asafoetida powder

Method

Wash and rinse the moong dal

Pressure cook with double the amount of water/Cook with 4 Cups of water 

Cook the root vegetables separately with salt

Once the dal is cooked, add the vegetables and simmer for 5 minutes
Optional: Use 1/4 tsp or 1/2 tsp of white pepper for heat

Tadka/Tempering

Heat 2 tbps of ghee

Add the cummin seeds and asafoetida

Pour over the dal.

Thanksgiving Recipes: Butternut Squash Soup with Adzuki Beans

This was taken with a DSLR and a new lens, courtesy the ManofFewWords!:-)

And the rest with my old Point and Shoot Nikon.

Hung Curd/ Yogurt Dip with sweet peppers, red chilli flakes and roasted cummin.

Dessert: Meyer Lemon Cheesecake with a Walnut crust

 Berries in a light Meyer Lemon-honey-sugar syrup.

Brunch: A simple pizza with a sprinkling of  Parmesan, yellow tomatoes, red onion slivers,  salt and black pepper.

Over the years, several versions of the traditional American  Thanksgiving dishes has become part of a new tradition; some years we have had a completely vegetarian menu. Our daily diet preference is vegetarian  and when we cook poultry or fish, it is always in a modest quantities. Every other dish, mashed potatoes, greens, green beans, bread, soup and chutneys would be spiced with flavours familiar from our cuisine too. Some dishes would just get an increase of the heat quotient. 

This dish mimics the traditional Kerala dish, the Erisseri where coconut is ground with cummin and also roasted to meld  with pumpkins, raw plantains, yams, beans and lentils. Heat comes from black pepper. Fried Shallots were added in some regions, or on some occasions. In the 'feast/sadya' version, the moisture was cooked away and coconut oil was used generously. In this soup, I have used coconut milk with ground cummin powder  and white pepper powder for the heat. This follows the route of another traditional dish, the Olan, Plantain and Adzuki Beans Soup; this is very similar but omits cummin and roasted coconut. This goes to Deb's Souper Sundays.

Serves One

Ingredients

1Cup of skinned  Butternut Squash

1/4 Cup cooked Adzuki beans

[soaked overnight and cooked]

1/2 Cup or more of coconut milk

1 pinch of cummin seeds, powdered

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1/4 tsp white pepper powder or according to taste

Salt

2 shallot, sliced and fried for garnish

Method

Cook the butternut squash and garlic  with just enough water and salt.

Once cooked, add the coconut milk and cummin powder

Season with white pepper powder

Cook for 4-5 minutes on simmer

Garnish with fried shallots, Serve.

Simple Vegetable Soup

This is a simple vegetable soup with thin Japanese Somen noodles.  Simply toasted, leftover ciabatta became croutons. Boiled egg slices from breakfast added to this lunch bowl. Dried red chilli flakes and fresh coriander sprigs garnished this dish. This goes to Deb's Souper Sundays.

Ingredients

1 Cup of finely chopped carrots
1 Cup of green peas [ thaw the frozen peas ]
1 1/2 cups of corn
1/2 cup of finely chopped red onions
2 mild long green chillies, diced [ use according to preference]
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
1 tbsp of sliced ginger
1 tsp of butter

Garnish:
Sprigs of fresh coriander
Boiled Egg slices [optional]
Dried red chilli flakes
Half of a bundle of  thin Japanese Somen noodles. Cook according to instructions and add to individual bowls.

Method

Heat butter,
Saute garlic  and onions for  a few minutes
Add the vegetables and the green chillies
Season with salt
Add 5 Cups of water
Bring to a gentle boil
Simmer for around 35 minutes
Cook the japanese noodles and add to the soup.