Something fantastic happened at work today! A big gust of wind shook the trees outside my window, and guess what?! Leaves fell. One of them even gracefully swooped and swirled and landed on the ledge outside my window. Yep. It’s here. I can’t deny it’s fall anymore when leaves are literally falling in front of my eyes.
Of course, I tried to take a picture of leaves falling, but there was really just that one big gust. I took a few too many pictures, and in one of them there’s an extra fleck of brown. Mostly it looks like I took excessive pictures of one tree and a parking lot . . . oh well!
Okay, food time. First no “new flora” post for too long, and now two in short succession! During my unpacking this week, I discovered mung beans in my pantry that I bought approximately two months ago. Fortunately they’re dried and well-packed, so they were fine 🙂
Of course I had to do a little research about mung beans since I know pretty much nothing about them. Here’s what I found:
- native to India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan
- high in fiber, iron, potassium, protein, essential fatty acids, and antioxidants
- they’re what cellophane noodles are made out of (yum!)
- your typical white bean sprouts are mung bean sprouts
What to do with them? Well, first just boil the little buggers and have a taste! Boil whole dry mung beans for half an hour.
Once they were cooked, I gave ’em a try. The verdict? Well, kind of bland. Tasty, but not much flavor – these are definitely an absorb-whatever-flavor-you-give-them kind of bean.
So I decided to do a simple saute with lots of ginger, garlic, and onions. I absolutely loved this meal!
serves 2
1/3 C dry mung beans
1 T olive oil
1/2 medium white onion, diced
1 large carrot, shredded
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 T fresh ginger, finely minced
1 T jarred kung pao sauce
Boil mung beans in water for half an hour. Drain.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook onions until slightly softened. Add shredded carrots, garlic, ginger, and mung beans. Saute for about 5 minutes. Then stir in kung pao sauce at the end (I just wanted a little more sauce coating my saute – you can substitute your favorite saute sauce.)
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and sesame seeds! As I was eating, I decided a cilantro garnish would have been excellent too.
Mung beans! Definitely going to buy these guys again. 🙂
Nutrition facts per serving: Calories: 226; Calories from Fat: 69; Total Fat: 7.7g; Saturated Fat: 1.2g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 193mg; Total Carbohydrates: 32.0g; Dietary Fiber: 7.5g; Sugars: 6.3g; Protein: 9.3g
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