Padengi Ghassi (Sprouted Mung Bean Curry)

A rich curry made with sprouted mung beans cooked in a spicy coconut based gravy is aromatic and delicious and tastes wonderful with red boiled rice

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Mangalorean

Keyword Chicken Curry, Mung Bean, Sprouts, Vegan

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 15

Total Time 35

Servings people

Calories 401kcal

Author Shireen Sequeira

Ingredients

3/4 cup dried green gram moong/mung beans or 300 grams (approx 2-1/2 cups) sprouted green gram
1 medium sized onion chopped
1 large tomato chopped
3 teaspoons thick tamarind extract adjust to taste
salt to taste

For the masala :

4 long dry red chillies without deseeding or (6 - 7 long dry red chillies, deseeded) * see notes
4-5 peppercorns adjust to taste
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 cup grated coconut

For the tempering ( seasoning ) :

1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon urad dal optional but recommended
6 flakes of garlic with skin crushed
1 broken dry red chilli
12 curry leaves
2 tablespoons coconut or any other oil

Instructions

Place the sprouts, chopped onions, tomatoes, tamarind extract and salt to taste in a pan. Sprinkle approx 1 cup water and cook until tender but not mushy. The fastest way to do this is in a pressure cooker (refer notes)
Heat a tawa/skillet and dry roast the red chillies, peppercorns, coriander and cumin one by one till aromatic (take care not to burn them). Allow to cool until crisp and then grind along with the coconut, turmeric and a couple of tablespoons of water, till you get a fine paste. Rinse the mixer jar with 3/4th - 1 cup water and reserve it.
Add the ground paste to the cooked sprouts, mix and then add the reserved masala water - adjust consistency of the gravy as desired. Check salt to taste and simmer the curry for 2-3 mins. Remove from heat.
To prepare the tempering heat oil in a small pan and when it is hot, add the mustard. When it stops spluttering add the urad dal, crushed garlic, curry leaves and broken red chilli and give a quick stir. Pour this into the prepared curry and cover the pan immediately
Serve hot with rice, moode, neer dosa or chapathis

Notes

1. To sprout your own mung beans, soak them in plenty of water for 8-10 hours. I usually start the process a day in advance. For ex: If I want to cook sprouts on Sunday, I soak the mung beans in ample amount of water on Saturday morning (around 8-9 am). After it has soaked the whole day, at night, discard the soaked water and place the mung beans in a muslin/cheesecloth and bundle it up. Place this bundle in a small bowl and sprinkle a little water over it. Keep the bowl in a warm corner of your kitchen to aid germination. The next morning the mung beans would have sprouted. For best results, cook the mung beans when the sprouts are still small and tender, the shorter the sprouts, tastier they will be.
2. To pressure cook the sprouts place them along with the onions and tomatoes in a cooker and sprinkle approx 1/2 cup of water and mix well. Cover the lid and place the whistle and cook on full heat for one whistle. Immediately take the cooker off the heat and place it slightly tilted in the sink and turn on the tap of water so that water falls on the base of the cooker (not directly over the lid). This will help the cooker to cool down immediately and you will notice that the weight (whistle) has loosened up completely. Open carefully and stir gently. Vegetables cooked this way will be cooked just right and not turn mushy.
3. I used a mix of Bedgi and Kashmiri chillies, while the former lends the spice to the curry, the Kashmiri chillies give a great colour. If you are using more number of chillies you can de seed them to reduce the spice

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