Moong Birdha

It’s been a couple of days since I added another blog, but I would like to add the recipe of Moong/Mung Birdha which we made on Monday, which is one of the dishes made for Shravani Somvar.

Ideally I make vaalacha birdha but I haven’t been able to find good vaal in the Indian Grocery stores in the US.

 Moong is a very nutritious bean.  There are 3 main forms of moong found in stores. One is the whole moong (unpeeled), two, the split moong (unpeeled) and the third is the split (peeled) one.

Each one is cooked in a different way, example, if you make spinach vegetable, add soaked (for an hour) split moong, a one inch stick of cinnamon and cook till the dal is fully cooked.

It is healthy, tastes good and the kids love it with white rice and ghee. 

Usually, the first solid food given to infants consists of moong (split – peeled) and rice. The split moong beans are first washed, dried and then lightly roasted on a pan.

They are then ground in a food processor and stored.

You can use a spoon full a day. Cook it well in some water till it forms a nice paste.

But I digress. Getting back to our birdha, I use whole moong, soak it in water for 4-5 hours.

Drain the water and let them sprout overnight.

Once they sprout, soak them in water for about an hour so that the peels loosen up.

After peeling, they are ready to use. I have a picture of the peeled moong along with the birdha.

Recipe :

Ingredients:

Moong Dal (sprouted and peeled)                   1 cup

Onion (chopped fine)                                    ½ cup

Asafetida                                                     1 pinch

Mustard Seeds                                              ½ tspn

Jeera                                                          ½ tspn

Jeera Powder                                              ¼ tspn

Turmeric  Powder                                        ½ tspn

Chili Powder                                               1 tspn

Coconut Milk                                               ¼ cup

Kokum                                                        4 -5 nos

Sugar to taste

Garlic Paste                                                ½ tspn

Green chili                                                 1 no.

Coriander Leaves

Coriander Powder                                       ½ tspn

Fennel Powder                                            ¼ tspn        

Oil                                                             2 tbspn

Water                                                        2 cups

Procedure:

Add oil to the heated pan. Add Asafetida, Mustard Seeds, Jeera and Turmeric powder. Then, add the moong and onion together and stir lightly. Add the water, Chili powder and salt.

Let the water reach a boil. Add jeera powder, coriander powder, fennel powder and garlic paste.

Let it cook till the moong is soft.

Add Kokum, sugar and coconut milk and let it boil for couple of minutes.

Finally add coriander Leaves and green chili as garnish.

Enjoy!!