Sri Lankan Mung Bean Soup
This is everyday Sri Lankan comfort food, whole green mung simmered soft and spiced with a hand-ground roast of coriander, cumin, and fenugreek. The single most important step is how dark you toast those seeds: Sri Lankan curry powder is roasted almost to burning, and that depth is what usually gets propped up with salt and, in the coconut belt, a can of coconut milk. Here pandan and curry leaf perfume the pot, the dark spice carries the body, and tamarind with a squeeze of lime does the seasoning.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Mung beans, rinsed
- 1 whole Yellow onions, diced
- 3 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp Ginger, grated
- 1 1/2 tsp Coriander seed
- 1 tsp Cumin seed
- 1/4 tsp Fenugreek seed
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric
- 15 Curry leaves
- 1 Pandan leaf, knotted
- 1 piece Ceylon cinnamon, 2-inch stick
- 1 whole Fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 1/4 tsp Cayenne
- 1/2 tsp Black peppercorns, ground
- 1 tbsp Tamarind paste
- 1 tbsp Lime juice
Method
- Simmer the mung beans with the turmeric, knotted pandan leaf, cinnamon stick, and 5 cups (1180 ml) water until the beans are soft and starting to burst, about 35 minutes. Pandan knotted rather than chopped perfumes the pot and then pulls out cleanly at the end.
- While the beans cook, toast the coriander, cumin, and fenugreek seeds in a dry pan over medium heat until they are visibly darker and smell roasted, 3 to 4 minutes, then grind them. Sri Lankan cooking toasts its spices far darker than Indian cooking does, and that near-coffee roast is the flavor that separates this pot from a plain dal, so take the seeds right to deep brown.
- Sweat the onion in a separate pan with a few tablespoons of water until soft and golden, about 8 minutes, then add the garlic, ginger, curry leaves, and cayenne for another minute.
- Stir the toasted ground spices and the tomato into the onions and cook for 2 minutes, until the tomato slumps. Scrape all of it into the bean pot and simmer together for 10 minutes so the flavors marry.
- Pull out the pandan and cinnamon. Finish off the heat with the ground pepper, tamarind, and lime. Tamarind gives a deep, fruity sourness and lime a fresh top note, and between them they carry the soup with no salt. Loosen with hot water to the body you want.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 205 calories, 13 g protein, 9 g fiber, 40 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.
