Sprouted Moong Chaat
Chaat is street food built on contrast: soft and crunchy, sour and hot, all at once. The seasoning is usually chaat masala, which is largely black salt and amchur. Here the amchur stays and the salt goes, with roasted cumin and lime picking up the slack. Sprouting the mung beans yourself, two days on a damp cloth, turns a cheap dried legume into a fresh, protein-heavy base for pennies.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Mung beans, sprouted 2 days
- 1/2 Red onions, finely diced
- 1 Fresh tomatoe, finely diced
- 1 Cucumber, finely diced
- 3 tbsp Cilantro, chopped
- 1 Indian green chile, minced
- 2 tbsp Lime juice
- 1 tsp Cumin seed, toasted and ground
- 1/2 tsp Amchur
- 1/4 tsp Cayenne
- 1/4 tsp Black peppercorns, freshly ground
Method
- Steam the sprouts over an inch of boiling water for 4 minutes, just until the raw edge is gone but the tails still snap. A short steam also settles any food-safety worry that comes with raw sprouts, without turning them soft.
- Spread the sprouts on a plate to cool. Warm sprouts weep and go soggy in the bowl, so give them a few minutes.
- Toast the cumin seeds in a dry pan until they darken a shade and smell nutty, about 1 minute, then grind them. Pre-ground cumin tastes flat here, and the roast is most of the flavor.
- Toss the cooled sprouts with the onion, tomato, cucumber, cilantro, and green chile.
- Add the ground cumin, amchur, cayenne, and black pepper, then the lime juice. Toss and taste. Chaat masala is mostly salt and dried mango, so the amchur brings the sourness and the lime brings the lift, and you need no salt to land it. Eat within the hour, while it is cold and loud.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 150 calories, 9 g protein, 8 g fiber, 25 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
