Celebrate the freshness of spring with this colorful sprouted mung bean salad featuring root vegetables and sweet potatoes. Easy to prepare and full of nutrients, it’s a delicious and simple way to enjoy seasonal eating.

Eating Seasonally in Spring

As soon as the first suggestions of spring arrive, I crave more colorful, crisp, and lightly cooked food. I look forward to putting the roasting pans, soup pots, and cast iron skillets that have served me so well throughout the cold winter on the back burner in order to make more room for strainers, steamers, salad bowls, and my vegetable mandolin. Though we’ll all need to wait a little longer for spring’s first edible gifts—ramps, watercress, fiddleheads, sugar snaps, snow peas, and asparagus, to name a few—I’m happy to make do with what I can in the meantime.

Today, we wanted to share a simple sprouted mung bean salad I created that does just that. It’s very easy and is also a great way to use up any root vegetables that have been lying around in your fridge, such as beets, carrots, and sweet potatoes.

Jump to: Mung Bean Salad Recipe

 

Why We Love Mung Beans

I first fell in love with mung beans in India, which is where these green legumes originate¹. Today, mung beans are widely used throughout Asia and the rest of the world in both sweet and savory dishes. They are a good source of vitamins C, D, E, and K, as well as folic acid, iron, potassium, and zinc. They can be consumed cooked or sprouted, like in the recipe we’re sharing with you today. While you should be able to find sprouted mung beans at your local health food store, it’s very easy and more cost-effective to sprout your own at home. All it requires is a bit of time.

 

How to Make Sprouted Mung Bean Salad

Consider the recipe below as a loose guideline and feel free to take a lot of creative liberty! Add whatever complementary fresh vegetables you have on hand. For a sweet and savory kick, you can throw in some mango, red onion, cilantro, and jalapeno in place of the root vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Mung Beans
• 1 Tomato
• 1 thinly cut or julienned Carrot
• 1 Avocado
• 1 roasted Sweet Potato (I like to roast a few at 375º-400ºF for about 45-55 minutes. They’re great to have on hand for quick lunches or snacks.)
• 1 roasted Golden or Red Beet (feel free to roast with the sweet potatoes, it’ll take about 10-15 minutes longer to roast than the sweet potatoes)
• 1/4 cup Shredded Coconut
• 1 tablespoon or so of fresh Cilantro or Parsley
• A generous squeeze of Lemon Juice
• A drizzle of good quality Olive Oil
• Salt & Black Pepper, to Taste

Instructions:

1. Sprout the Mung Beans: Unless you purchased pre-sprouted mung beans, you’ll need 2 1/2-3 days to sprout your own. Fear not, the process is really easy:

• In a colander or strainer, rinse the dry mung beans thoroughly.
• Next, put them in a shallow baking dish or bowl and cover with 1 inch of water. Let them sit in a warm place for 8-12 hours. Drain and thoroughly rinse. Remove any hard, dark beans.
• Unless you have a seed sprouter, transfer the sprouts-to-be into a bowl or jar with a couple of inches of water at the bottom. Cover with cheesecloth or foil with some holes punched into the top and let sit for another 8-12 hours. Drain, rinse, and repeat this step once more or until the seeds are sprouted to the desired amount.
• When the sprouts are ready, rinse them well and either use them immediately or store them in an airtight container for 4-5 days. Here are a couple of good online resources that break down the sprouting process in greater detail: Padhu’s Kitchen & A Couple Cooks

2. Salad Assembly: Once your mung sprouts are ready, the salad assembly will only take a few minutes.

• Rinse and cut up the tomatoes and carrots. Roughly chop the avocado. Place them in a larger bowl with the sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes and beets, shredded coconut, and herbs.
• Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste and toss together.

3. Enjoy your delicious mung bean salad!

 

¹ The word mung comes from the Tamil word mūngu. Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world and remains the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, as well as the Union Territory of India islands of Andaman and Nicobar.

 

by Sophie Slater