July 29, 2009

Mungbean Soup

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mungbean soup with fresh pepper leaves

Growing up in the Philippines I remember eating boiled mungbean soup and fried fish almost EVERY Friday. Most Filipinos serve a vegetable dish for lunch and dinner and mungbean soup or stew is a favorite because it's cheap and nutritious. After boiling the mungbeans, my mom used to set aside a few cups for us children to eat as a snack with added milk and sugar. It is delicious, weird maybe, but delicious.

I cook mungbean soup once a month and pair it with an adobo dish. I usually add a saute of garlic, onions, and tomatoes after boiling, other times I prepare it Spanish style boiling the uncooked mungbeans together with garlic, onions, a bay leaf, and olive oil. Regardless of the way I prepare mungbeans, we always prefer the dish meatless.

For color I added fresh pepper leaves from my garden. I don't know if the pepper leaves have nutritional value but I like them for visual appeal.

Mungbean Soup
1 cup dried unhulled yellow or green mungbeans
water
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 cup sliced sweet onions
1 cup diced tomatoes
1½ teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
pepper leaves, optional
  • Clean and pick out foreign materials from mungbeans. Rinse with water 3 times and place in a medium sauce pan. Add water to top 2 inches above the beans. Turn heat to high, let come to a boil. Turn heat down to low, cover, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes, checking and adding more water if necessary.
  • In another medium sauce pan or wok, heat the oil and saute garlic and onion for 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt, black pepper, and the cooked mungbeans including the water. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, adding more water as needed. Taste and adjust salt. Turn the heat off and mix in the pepper leaves if using. Transfer into a serving bowl and serve with rice.

yummy atop a bowl of rice

9 comments:

caninecologne said...

hi oggi
i like that you use sili leaves in your mongo soup. i need to try that next time i make this. i grew up eating it with spinach or sometimes, malunggay leaves. my brother makes this dish really well but he adds pork and sometimes shrimp.

Juliana said...

Wow, I never had mung been as a salty dish, always with sugar...have to try this...looks really yummie.

Ruy said...

Your mungbean soup looks so fresh and yummy! The pepper leaves really make a big difference. Uhmm, psychologically at least I feel that its green leafiness must pack a mean collection of vitamins. Yeah!
I also miss the monggo with milk! I wonder why I don't see many people feeding that to kids for merienda anymore. Must remember to feed my daughter that.=)
Lastly, mungbeans with adobo is such a classic. Love it.

Anonymous said...

Glad to know I am not the only one who grew up eating a cup of boiled monggo beans with milk and sugar.
I do miss eating it as a snack.

-Cel

Mirage said...

I have this one a week! ;-) One of my first entries were the benefits of mung beans to my sickly son---mung beans provide all the iron plus shrimp which I add lots of and tomatoes, the calcium helps the body absorb the iron better...yun nga lang since wala akong sili leaves spinach na lang...eh malabo pa din until now kung inhibit ba nya iron absorption o kung marami shang iron content...o di ba niresearch talaga hehe!

We love eating this with tinapa!

Oggi said...

R, I sometimes also add malunggay frozen nga lang. I have a recipe that has smoked fish and shrimps which sounds yummy too.

Juliana, we also love sweetened mungbean paste, the yellow one, specially in mochi type snacks.

Ruy, I googled it and was surprised that not all varieties of pepper leaves have nutritional value, hmmm.

Cel, I think only Asians love sweet beans. I remember a time when friend of my son looked puzzled (and perhaps disgusted) when I fed him halo-halo with sweet white beans.:)

G, I didn't know that about iron absorption. My mother fed us munggo regularly for the meatless protein benefit. I like that it is healthy yet delicious sweet or savory.:)

A said...

my ma always did that too when she made guinisang munggo: reserving boiled munggo to snack on later with milk and sugar. i still do it too. i didn't realize it was a popular treat. =)

Oggi said...

A, I also didn't know many Filipinos love sweet munggo.:)

Anonymous said...

i remember my board mates way way back..
when the weather gets tough and we all agree to be absent from our classes..
we long for monggo with milk & sugar.
Haayz. Hehe :D

--jaze<3

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