Mungbean Soup

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

Catfish Belly Adobo And Mungbean Soup

I love catfish adobo and when I see just bellies I always get them. To prepare marinate the bellies for an hour in vinegar, garlic, salt, extra virgin olive oil and kikkoman soy sauce, drain and fry in hot olive oil until brown. Then boil the marinade until thick, and pour over the fried bellies, yum, yum, yum. BoiI the mungbeans with 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 2 smashed garlic cloves and 1 chopped onion, add 1 teaspoon sea salt when fully cooked, then add malunggay leaves (horseradish tree) which I get frozen from the Filipino grocery. I drizzle more extra virgin olive oil before serving using only Spanish or Portuguese olive oil as they are more robust than Italian or French.

I also made a Chinese vegetarian stir fry using canned vegetable mix and flavored gluten for non fish eaters.