The mung bean (Vigna radiata), alternatively
known as the green gram, maash, or moong Sanskrit
मुद्ग / mudga, is a plant species
in the legume family.
The mung bean is mainly cultivated in India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China,
Taiwan, Korea, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
It is used as an ingredient in both savory
and sweet dishes.
== Description ==
The mung bean is an annual vine with yellow
flowers and fuzzy brown pods.
The English word mung correctly pronounced
as 'Moong' originated (and used as is) from
Hindi word मूंग moong which is derived
from the Sanskrit word मुद्ग (mudga).
Moong is called in Tamil as "Paasi Payaru",
பாசி பயறு.
== Taxonomy ==
Mung beans are one of many species recently
moved from the genus Phaseolus to Vigna.
The species is still often incorrectly cited
as Phaseolus aureus or Phaseolus radiatus.
== Uses ==
Mung beans are commonly used in cuisines across
Asia.
=== Whole beans and paste ===
Whole cooked mung beans are generally prepared
from dried beans by boiling until they are
soft.
Mung beans are light yellow in colour when
their skins are removed.
Mung bean paste can be made by dehulling,
cooking, and pulverizing the beans to a dry
paste.
==== South Asia ====
Although whole mung beans are also occasionally
used in Indian cuisine, beans without skins
are more commonly used; but in Maharashtra,
Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, whole mung
beans (called pachai payaru பச்சை
பயறு in Tamil) are commonly boiled
to make a dry preparation often served with
rice gruel (kanji கஞ்ஞி).
Dehulled mung beans can also be used in a
similar fashion as whole beans for the purpose
of making sweet soups.
Mung beans in some regional cuisines of India
are stripped of their outer coats to make
mung dal.
In Bangladesh and West Bengal the stripped
and split bean is used to make soup-like dal
known as Moog dal(মুগ ডাল).
In the South Indian States of Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and also
in Maharashtra steamed whole beans are seasoned
with spices and fresh grated coconut in a
preparation called "Pesalu" పెసలు
in Telugu or Usli in Kannada or Sundal சுண்டல்
in Tamil or "Usal" उसळ in Marathi.
==== East Asia ====
In Chinese cuisine, whole mung beans are used
to make a tángshuǐ, or dessert, otherwise
literally translated, "sugar water", called
lǜdòu tángshuǐ, which is served either
warm or chilled.
In Hong Kong, dehulled mung beans and mung
bean paste are made into ice cream or frozen
ice pops.
Mung bean paste is used as a common filling
for Chinese mooncakes in East China and Taiwan.
Also in China, the boiled and shelled beans
are used as filling in glutinous rice dumplings
eaten during the dragon boat festival (端午節).
The beans may also be cooked until soft, blended
into a liquid, sweetened, and served as a
beverage, popular in many parts of China.
In Korea, skinned mung beans are soaked and
ground with some water to make a thick batter.
This is used as a basis for the Korean pancakes
called Bindae-tteok (빈대떡).
==== Southeast Asia ====
In the Philippines, ginisáng monggó (sautéed
mung bean stew), also known as monggó guisado
or balatong, is a savoury stew of whole mung
beans with prawns or fish.
It is traditionally served on Fridays of Lent,
when the majority Roman Catholic Filipinos
traditionally abstain from meat.
Variants of ginisáng monggó may also be
made with chicken or pork.
Mung bean paste is also a common filling of
pastries known as hopia (or bakpia) popular
in Indonesia, the Philippines and further
afield in Guyana (where it is known as black
eye cake).
In Indonesia, mung beans are also made into
a popular dessert snack called es kacang hijau,
which has the consistency of a porridge.
The beans are cooked with sugar, coconut milk,
and a little ginger.
==== Middle East ====
A staple diet in some parts of the Middle
East is Mung beans and rice.
Both are cooked together like a pilaf rice
dish called maash wa ruzz which means mung
beans and rice.
=== Bean sprouts ===
Mung beans are germinated by leaving them
in water for four hours of daytime light and
spending the rest of the day in the dark.
Mung bean sprouts can be grown under artificial
light for four hours over the period of a
week.
They are usually simply called "bean sprouts".
However, when bean sprouts are called for
in recipes, it generally refers to mung bean
or soybean sprouts.
Mung bean sprouts are stir-fried as a Chinese
vegetable accompaniment to a meal, usually
with garlic, ginger, spring onions, or pieces
of salted dried fish to add flavour.
Uncooked bean sprouts are used in filling
for Vietnamese spring rolls, as well as a
garnish for phở.
They are a major ingredient in a variety of
Malaysian and Peranakan cuisine, including
char kway teow, hokkien mee, mee rebus, and
pasembor.
In Korea, slightly cooked mung bean sprouts,
called sukjunamul (hangul: 숙주나물),
are often served as a side dish.
They are blanched (placed into boiling water
for less than a minute), immediately cooled
in cold water, and mixed with sesame oil,
garlic, salt, and often other ingredients.
In the Philippines, mung bean sprouts are
made into lumpia rolls called lumpiang togue.
In India, mung bean sprouts are cooked with
green chili, garlic, and other spices in the
state of Gujarat.
In Indonesia the food are often used as fillings
like Tahu Isi (stuffed tofu) and complementary
ingredient in many dishes such as rawon and
soto.
In northern China and Korea, soybean sprouts,
called kongnamul (hangul: 콩나물) in Korean,
are more widely used in a variety of dishes.
The "blue sprouts" are toxic since they contain
small quantities of hydrogen cyanide, like
potato sprouts do.
=== Starch ===
Mung bean starch, which is extracted from
ground mung beans, is used to make transparent
cellophane noodles (also known as bean thread
noodles, bean threads, glass noodles, fensi
(粉絲), tung hoon (冬粉), miến, bún
tàu, or bún tào).
Cellophane noodles become soft and slippery
when they are soaked in hot water.
A variation of cellophane noodles, called
mung bean sheets or green bean sheets, are
also available.
In Korea, a jelly called nokdumuk (hangul:
녹두묵; also called cheongpomuk; hangul:
청포묵) is made from mung bean starch;
a similar jelly, colored yellow with the addition
of gardenia coloring, is called hwangpomuk
(hangul: 황포묵).
In northern China, mung bean jelly is called
liangfen (涼粉, meaning chilled bean jelly),
which is a very popular food during summer.
Jidou liangfen is another flavor of mung bean
jelly food in Yunnan, in southern China.
Mung batter is used to make crepes named pesarattu
in Andhra Pradesh, India and pancakes named
Bindaetteok in Korea.
(The starch content ~ 56.82%)
== History of domestication and cultivation
==
The mung bean was domesticated in Persia (Iran),
where its progenitor (Vigna radiata subspecies
sublobata) occurs wild.Carbonized mung beans
have been discovered in many archeological
sites in India.
Areas with early finds include the eastern
zone of the Harappan civilization in Punjab
and Haryana, where finds date back about 4,500
years, and South India in the modern state
of Karnataka where finds date back more than
4,000 years.
Some scholars therefore infer two separate
domestications in the northwest and south
of India.
In South India there is evidence for evolution
of larger-seeded mung beans 3,500 to 3,000
years ago.
By about 3500 years ago mung beans were widely
cultivated throughout India.
Cultivated mung beans later spread from India
to China and Southeast Asia.
Archaeobotanical research at the site of Khao
Sam Kaeo in southern Thailand indicates that
mung beans had arrived in Thailand by at least
2,200 years ago.Finds on Pemba Island indicate
that during the era of Swahili trade, in the
9th or 10th century, mung beans also came
to be cultivated in Africa.
== See also
