Mung Bean Soup is a super nutritious and easy soup to make. Just sauté and simmer. The combination of spices and fresh ingredients will make this vegetarian soup one of your favorites. This soup cooks up fast enough for a weeknight family meal.
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Mung beans are a member of the legume family. It is very common in Asian cuisine and has a wide array of practical uses in cooking.
You may know mung beans by its more common use in western cuisine by the name of bean sprouts. Mung beans are soaked in water until they sprout then used for making stir-fry, egg rolls, garnishes for soups and wraps.
Mung beans go by different names depending on the region. In the Philippines, it is known as the monggo bean where it is commonly cooked into a stew with added prawns, a common dish during Lent. In India, the outer green hull is stripped away and is known as mung dal. In Bangladesh this is known as Moog dal. Chances are you have already had mung beans in some form so don’t be afraid of this bright, green bean. You already love this, you just didn’t know it.
If you are vegetarian inclined, incorporating more legumes like mung beans into your diet can yield really good nutritional value. They are high in B vitamins, protein, folate, thiamin and minerals. Even if you aren’t vegetarian, expanding your culinary horizons to include this superfood can improve your nutritional intake.
If you really like soup that is healthy, try Norwegian Lamb and Cabbage stew. With just a few ingredients, you can enjoy Norways national dish.
You don’t have to be a vegetarian to enjoy this soup made with fresh ingredients. If you make this, tag us on Instagram #FusionCraftiness so that we may see. Bon Appetit!
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Be sure to reference the How to Make Soup article for essential information on making soup from scratch, without a recipe! Need some inspiration? My personal list of 35 Best Soups will inspire your creativity.
If you are making your own broth, you will need to check out this post on How to Make Broth. It also gives you clues as to when homemade broth is a must or if you can get away with store bought broth.
Mung Bean Soup
Mung Bean Soup is a super nutritious and easy soup to make. Just sauté and simmer. The combination of spices and fresh ingredients will make this vegetarian soup one of your favorites. This soup cooks up fast enough for a weeknight family meal.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of mung beans
- 1 tsp of baking soda
- 3 tbs cooking oil
- 1 yellow onion, peeled and diced
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 1 Tbs minced ginger
- 1 serrano, seeded and diced small
- 1 Tbs turmeric
- 1 tsp Chile powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- 15 oz can diced tomatoes
- 3 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 lemons, quartered
Instructions
- Place beans in a medium bowl, add baking soda and enough water to cover by an inch. Soak at least 1 hour or overnight. Drain and rinse beans well. Set aside.
- In a dutch oven or large soup pot, add oil over medium heat. Add onions and cinnamon stick, cook until onions are translucent, stirring frequently, about five minutes.
- Add garlic, ginger, serrano, turmeric, Chile powder, cumin, corriander and cook 2 minutes.
- Add tomatoes undrained and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add mung beans, water and 1 tsp salt, simmer for 20 minutes. Add more water if necessary for desired consistency.
- When beans are soft, serve with desired garnish and lemon wedges.
Notes
- A great addition to this soup is asafetida or fenugreek leaves. These ingredients can be a little hard to find in a regular market. If you do have these ingredients, add when you add the other spices.
- Serve with crusty bread.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1 bowlAmount Per Serving: Calories: 135Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 687mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 6gSugar: 4gProtein: 4g
Dawn says
This recipe is delicious. It’s interesting with ginger, cinnamon with Mexican spices. I added carrots, zucchini and ground turkey.
Made homemade organic sourdough. Perfect combo.
Tina says
So glad this worked out for you! I love all soups and mung beans are not only easy to work with but I really like the texture. It has a good ‘bite’. Happy souping Dawn!
Trish Bozeman says
We eat mostly vegetarian meals and usually use lentils, but I’m so excited to try mung beans! This is gorgeous and just what we need to switch things up.
Debra says
I buy mung beans all the time to sprout, but I never considered cooking them into soup. Great idea. I’d like to use more of them because they are so nutritious.
Sean@Diversivore says
Lovely soup, with wonderful spices. I like pretty much every pulse out there, but I don’t cook mung beans often enough (I do use the husked mung daal a little more regularly though). With a recipe like this to fall back on I think I’ll have to start using them a bit more regularly. Cheers!
Dana says
Perfect for rainy days and meatless Mondays! I love effortless weeknight dinners. Even though I work from home, sometimes I just don’t have the energy to whip something up in the evening. Something like this is simple, perfect, and light.
Marisa F. Stewart says
I’ve never had mung bean soup! Where have I been?? This soup sounds so flavorful with the serrano pepper and cinnamon. We enjoy soup all year long and this soup is now on our list.
Jenni LeBaron says
This sounds delicious! I love the addition of cinnamon and serrano chili. I bet this is incredibly aromatic and flavorful. A wonderful soup to warm up with!
Tracy says
Turns out I LOVE mung beans but I had no idea! That’s for letting me know they were also known as bean sprouts! This soup sounds so incredible. I can’t wait to try it!
Daniela says
After a couple of really warm days, we are back to rainy, gloomy weather in Eastern WA, so this soup would be just perfect to cheer me up! I didn’t know exactly what mung beans were before reading your post, so thank you for giving such a great explanation. Any tips of where to find them if you live in the middle of nowhere like me? 🙂
Bianca says
I didn’t know it was this easy to cook these beans. They look unusual and I always wondered how you would use them. Glad to hear they cook up quickly and are healthy. Seems like the perfect weeknight soup to me. Thanks for this recipe, need to try this.