Green Beans & Mung Dal

Green Bean & Mung Dal
Stir-Fried with Onions & Tomatoes

A group of buddies at work decided to have lunch at an Indian restaurant one day. We decided to go to one that served a buffet at lunch time. Indian food pre-Y2K was not as commonplace as it is in Michigan today. So we all lined up to fill our plates and returned to our seats at the lunch table to eat. All of a sudden the guy sitting across from me turned red in the face and began choking over his food. It turns out he had helped himself to some innocuous-looking whole green chilies, thinking they were cut-up green beans. Poor chap took a while to calm down enough to enjoy his lunch.

Mum often made a green beans dish which inspired me to try with mung bean lentils that were pre-soaked for about an hour. Mum's green beans were cut in one-inch lengths and stir-fried over high heat along with onions, tomatoes and quite a bit of ground black pepper. Yummy to eat with both hot rice and puffy chapatis or tortillas.

I diced the green beans and stir-fried it the same way as Mum used to, except that I added the softened mung dal. It was just as yummy with an extra bite from the lentils.

Ingredients:

1 lb. green beans, ends removed & diced

1 cup mung dal, soaked in warm water for 1 hour & drained

1 large onion, peeled & diced

2 medium Roma tomatoes, diced

1 green chili, diced

1/2 tsp. white pepper

salt to taste

1/4 tsp. nigella/kalo jeera/kalonji seeds

4 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat and sputter nigella seeds & diced chilies.
2. Add onions & stir-fry until translucent.
3. Stir in tomatoes & mung dal & stir-fry until tomatoes break down.
4. Add green beans, salt & pepper & stir well.
5. Lower heat to medium, cover & cook until beans and mung dal are tender.
6. Transfer to a serving bowl when no liquid traces remain.

Serve over steamed Basmati rice or chapatis.