Name: Sprouted Moong Salad
Prep time: 24 min
Cook time: 5 min
Ingredients: 1 cup mung beans; water to soak; ¼ red onion, finely chopped; 1 medium tomato, diced; ⅓ cup cilantro; 2 green chilis, minced; 1 persian cucumber, chopped; ½ tsp kala namak (black salt) + more to taste; 1.5 tsp chaat masala + more to taste; 1 tbsp lime juice; ¼ cup toasted peanuts

This sprouted moong salad is an easy meal or side and takes advantage of the magic of sprouting! Sprouted moong dal is tossed with onions, cilantro, green chilis, tomatoes, kala namak (black salt), chaat masala, lime juice, and peanuts for this salad meets chaat episode.

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Sprouted moong beans are tossed with onions, cilantro, green chilis, tomatoes, kala namak, chaat masala, lime juice, and peanuts.

I recently came across one of those wellness articles about how sprouted lentils are the latest with gut health, and my first thought was this moong salad my dad has been making us for years. Maybe my dad is the real trendsetter? Anyways, make sure to learn to use sprouts before you see them being sold for too much money at some sophisticated restaurant!

Even if the article (on a platform I usually respect, so I won’t explicitly bash it here lol) made it sound like they invented sprouts, I’m glad the mainstream is catching up because it only takes five minutes of active work to sprout moong dal, while also tripling its volume, rendering the sprouts crunchy yet tender, and increasing the nutrients available to you – more fiber, protein, and antioxidants! And they say eating plant-based is expensive and grass (not gross…grass).

You can sprout anything, but I’ve always been most familiar with moong beans because they’re native to India and have therefore been common in Indian cuisine. I like to mix the sprouted moong beans chaat-style with kala namak (black salt), chaat masala, lime juice, and peanuts.

How to Make Sprouted Moong Salad

Soak and dry moong/mung beans.

Soak for 12-24 hours. Drain and dry, partially covered, for another 12 hours or until the tadpole-like tails form.

Toss the moong sprouts with veggies and seasonings.

I tossed them with onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, green chilis, kala namak (black salt), chaat masala, lime juice, and peanuts! It’s a salad, but reminiscent of the flavors and varying textures of chaat. Chaat has a savory, umami-rich kick that comes from chaat masala, a spice blend made with dried mango powder, musk melon, seeds, and a bunch of other spices.

How to use sprouts

You can continue coming up with salad combos of your own, but you can also cook them! Here are some recipes I’ll have to try:

sprouted moong cheela by Holy Cow Vegan

sprouted moong dal by Archana’s Kitchen