Green moong dal is a homely dal. It’s a very tasty dal – but not something you’d find in a restaurant. There’s no cream, no butter. This is the kind of dal you’d eat at someone’s house. The kind of dal you probably ate on a regular basis if you grew up with Indian parents. This is comfort food. Dal you scoop up with roti. Or serve with rice. And of course – this dal is made even simpler thanks to my onion masala. Story of my blog lately. It’s time for me to preach about onion masala again. You’d think I was starting a cult. It’s just that onion masala is so great because all these dals that used to take me so long to make have all become pour and cook recipes. As in, 5 minutes and dinner prep is done. There’s another reason that I really like using onion masala though – other than the reduced cook time. It’s because there aren’t bits of onion or tomato floating around the dal. Not that I personally care about that of course, but it keeps my toddler from sticking his fingers into the bowl and picking things out. He does this with so many dishes now! He’ll pick all the tiny bell peppers out of my corn kadai, put them to the side of his plate, and claim that they’re too spicy to eat. Bell peppers are not spicy. 🤷🏽♀️ My mostly agreeable little boy is growing up to be a picky little man… like his daddy lol. I really should’ve seen it coming. So yes, the onion masala makes for a mostly smooth dal that still has texture from the lentils. A textured smooth dal. I know, I know – my food descriptions make so much sense. I know this looks like a brown-ish dal, but the dried lentils are green, which is why its called green moong dal. This is what whole green moong beans look like: I wrote this blog post all about the different types of legumes commonly used in Indian cooking – if you want to check it out 🙂 This green moong dal has several other names: sabut moong, green gram, whole mung beans.
On soaking legumes:
I like to soak whole legumes overnight because I think it helps with digestion but you do what you think is best. Even soaking them for a couple hours is better than not soaking at all in my opinion. Anyway, after I soak them in water, they get all nice and plump (due to water absorption).
Since soaked legumes have already absorbed water, I find that 3 cups is the right amount of liquid for me to use in this dal. If you decide not to soak, you may need to add more liquid at the very end of the cooking process – not a big deal, just letting you know. I like to adjust liquid and salt at the end anyway.
I hope you love this cozy bowl spicy green moong dal. Let me know what you think!
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