Mung Bean Sprouts
Mung bean, the seed of Vigna Radiata, a native plant in India and Pakistan, is also commonly referred to as green bean, munggo or monggo, green gram, golden gram, green soy, mung, moong, or mash bean.
The English word mung is derived from moong, a Hindu term. Mung beans thrive well in India, Philippines, Indonesia, China, Burma, and Bangladesh, and even in the hot and dry regions of South Europe and southern part of the United States of America.
They require warm temperature, around 30-35 degrees Celsius. They are also considered as tropical or sub-tropical crops and grow best in loamy soil.
Cuisines of Japan, Korea, Pakistan, India, Thailand, China and Southeast Asia commonly use mung beans in their dishes. They can be eaten with or without their skins and either whole or as bean sprouts.
They can also be used for the dessert ‘green bean soup’. The starch can be extracted from the mung bean and can be used for making jellies and transparent noodles.
Its flour can also be used for wrapping of Vietnamese spring rolls. The mung bean is also usually added to meat, bay leaves, onion and garlic or used as main ingredient in hopiang monggo for Filipino dishes while crepes in India are made from mung batter.
When the skins are removed from the beans, the color becomes instant yellowish. Mung bean paste are usually for ice creams, ice pops, mooncake and other dessert items.
In India, mung beans are also a popular snack item, with a fat content of around 20% only. It takes around 60 to 90 seconds to fry mung beans to become dal moth, the snack food.
What has been a traditionally home made snack item are now being distributed by industrial producers. To germinate bean sprouts, you can leave the beans watered for four hours under daytime light and for the rest of the period under no light.
Using fluorescent lights or incandescent light bulbs is also advisable. These sprouts are usually sold in the market, under different names for different languages. They are usually stir fried to come with a meal and are considered the major bean sprouts in the Asian region.
