Mung beans are valued in many societies for their adaptability and nutrition. People often eat mung beans in sprouted form, but they also enjoy them cooked or eaten as seeds or young beans.
Sprout Uses
Mung bean sprouts are popular in many countries; people eat them raw or add them to salads or stir-fry. In parts of Africa, they form an important part of many rural diets, where Africans eat them as seeds or young beans.
Sprout Nutrition
A cup of sprouts contains a quarter of the required daily amount of vitamin C, four grams of protein and a tenth of the necessary folate. They are also rich in thiamin, magnesium and phosphorous and contain only 26 calories.
Cooking Mung Beans
Mung beans do not require as much preparation time. Raw beans cook within an hour, with no soaking required.
Use in Indian Cooking
India uses mung beans regularly in cooking. They are cooked with vegetables, grains and greens in soups, ground into flour for use in flatbreads, mixed with rice, oatmeal or cracked wheat to make khicharee, pureed into a spread for rice or bread or stuffed into pastries to make sweets.
Ayurvedic Uses
Practitioners of the ancient Hindu healing art of Ayurveda value mung beans for their digestibility when cooked properly, even by those recovering from an illness. Practitioners also believe the beans balance the doshas, or energies, that comprise an individual's physical and mental makeup.
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