Do choose a healthy mung bean soup inspired by one of the most delicious curries ever over the alternative. This mung bean soup packs so much protein minerals and fiber besides flavor. I had lot of refined carbs full soups and meals until I woke up and realized what a bad choice that was. Thats when I started making healthy curry-based meals, with the same seasonings that curries do but wouldn’t need lot of rice to go with them. Today I am going to share one such recipe. A little bit of lamb meat, delicious mung beans and whole lot of vegetables, this soup will be done and ready to go in 30 minutes.
What can mung bean soup offer than creamy comforting cream of chicken or mushroom soup? How is it going to be different from any other soup? The answer lies in how enriching and full of good fiber, proteins, and minerals mung beans are. And the lamb is just for added protein and wonderfully luxurious flavor.
The mung bean soup, I make is closely related to the Mediterranean lentil soup and Sri Lankan Mung beans curry. Sri Lankan mung bean curry, with chunky boiled mung beans simmered in medium spicy coconut curry sauce is a wonderful pairing for a rice and curry meal with Sri Lankan world famous tuna curry
Making Mung bean soup inspired by the curry took some researching in to introducing milder flavors, nutrients and drawing inspiration from Mediterranean flavors. Specifically, from Greek cooking.
I wouldn’t pretend to fully understand and elaborate on a cuisine as exquisite as Greek and Mediterranean cooking. But I do love to mix and mingle flavors into my own cooking sometimes. just because I love to experiment with the flavors I like so much. I did see I could blend Mediterranean flair with my mung bean soup recipe.
What flavors and ingredients did I use in my Mung bean soup?
My mung bean soup base uses cumin as primary note. The fresh dose of unroasted cumin, coriander, and turmeric along with little freshly crushed fennel seeds blends perfectly with mung bean and lamb combination.
What enhances the base notes of flavor is preserved lemons. I keep just a little bit of lemon, dehydrated, and preserved in salt to flavor my dishes. The subtle lemon flavor along with curry leaves gives a nice refreshing note to the overall flavor of the mung bean soup.
Sri Lankan influence in this dish is in little bit of black curry powder and cinnamon. The woody earthy aroma from toasted coconut and sweet musk from cinnamon bark, just elevates the mung bean soup to the next level.
Helpful cooking tips on making mung beans soup
I am using my presto stove top pressure cooker to get my mung bean soup cooked to thick creamy consistency that I like. Cooking soups in pressure cooker helps have this soup ready to go in no time, convert it to an easy dump and go recipe.
Once I have all the recipe ingredients in, I start my stove top pressure cooker on high and leave until the steady jet of stream starts coming out. Once that happens, I turn the heat to medium and set the timer for 5 minutes. (Cooking time depends on what the pressure cooker manual says for each recipe) after five minutes, turn the heat off and leave the pressure cooker on the stove until steam jet completely cools down. This may take another 20 minutes. Once the cooker cools to touch open the pressure seal. Mung bean soup will be ready to serve.
Pressure cooker recipes are easily converted to slow cooker or stove top recipes. Just make sure you adjust the cooking time to suit your cooking method.
How best to serve mung bean soup
The best way to serve this soup is very warm steaming with a steaming plate of white basmati rice and a drizzle of excellent quality olive oil on top.
Serving rice is optional and entirely up to you because it’s so good on its own and a well-balanced meal. Rice is just for a pleasurable eating experience.
With that let’s get making this delicious fall soup.
Lamb and mung bean soup
Ingredients
The Soup
- 1 red onion
- 3 celery sticks
- 3 carrots
- 3 cups of boiled mung beans
- 2 lb. lamb diced
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
Seasonings
- 2 sprigs of curry leaves
- 3 green chilies
- 1 slice of preserved lemons
- 1 tsp tamarind
- 2- inch cinnamon
- 1 tsp of crushed black pepper
- 2 tsp of salt
- Tbsp of coriander powder
- 2 tsp of cumin
- 1 tsp black curry powder
- ½ tsp of fennel seeds
- 2 cardamom pods
Instructions
- Soak mung beans overnight, boil until cooked through drain and set aside
- Wash the lamb meat dice into medium chunks.
- Dice carrots, celery and set aside
- Crush ginger and garlic together and mince them fine.
- Crush whole spices into a coarse powder and add to the powdered spices.
- Brown onions in the pressure cooker, and add lamb and brown the meat together with onions, add vegetables and fry for another 5 minutes
- Add crushed seasoning blend, mung beans, ginger garlic, green chilies, curry powders, and preserved lemon.
- Add 4 cups of water to cover.
- Seal the pressure cooker and cook on high until pressure cooker starts jiggling. (approx. 15 minutes). Turn the heat down to medium and cook for an additional 5 minutes. turn the heat off and let the pressure cooker stand until completely cooled down. (approx. 20 minutes)
- Soup is ready to serve. Enjoy this soup warm with pita bread or dollop of steamed white rice.
