What Are Mung beans and How Can I Use Them?

Mung beans is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store them, what to substitute, and 25 recipes to get you started.

What are mung beans?

Mung beans are the small, olive-green beans you have probably eaten as bean sprouts without knowing it. Whole, they are about the size of a peppercorn, with a thin skin and a pale yellow interior.

Split and hulled, they turn golden and go by moong dal in Indian cooking. That split form melts into a soft, comforting dal in well under an hour.

The flavor is mild and a little sweet, with an earthy edge that is gentler than a lentil. Their real selling point for a busy cook is speed: whole mung beans cook tender without any soaking at all.

Cooking With Mung Beans

Whole mung beans are the rare bean you can cook straight from the bag. Rinse them, cover with a few inches of water, then simmer for 25 to 40 minutes until soft. A soak speeds things up but is never required, unlike the long pre-soak chickpeas demand.

That quick cooking makes them a weeknight friend for dal and stew. They carry the spices in a Mung Dal with Black Mustard Seeds and turn into a soupy Usal (A Mung-Bean Curry), where they break down just enough to thicken the pot.

Split moong dal cooks even faster, often in 20 to 30 minutes, and collapses into a smooth puree. It is the base for a gentle Buddhist Monk's Soup and for countless Indian dals.

Soaked and ground, mung beans also make a batter. The savory Korean Mung Bean Pancakes - Bindae Duk are fried from a thick mung paste.

In East Asian sweets, whole or skinned beans are simmered with sugar, as in Mung Beans with Brown Sugar, then mashed into a paste for buns and cakes.

Pairings and Common Mistakes

Mung beans lean savory or sweet with equal ease. On the savory side, cumin, turmeric, mustard seed, ginger, garlic, chili, and a finish of ghee bring a dal to life. On the sweet side, coconut milk, palm sugar, and pandan turn them into dessert.

The most common mistake is overcooking when you want texture. For a salad or a sprouted dish, the beans should stay just tender with a little bite. Push them too far and they go to mush.

The opposite is true for dal. There you want them soft enough to break down, so cook them longer and stir to help them fall apart.

Rinse before cooking. Mung beans often carry grit and the odd small stone.

Substitutes

For a dal, red lentils are the closest swap. They cook just as fast and collapse the same way, though they taste a touch sweeter and turn orange-yellow. Split yellow peas also work but take longer to soften.

For whole beans in a stew, brown or green lentils hold their shape similarly, with a more peppery, earthy flavor. They will not sprout, though, so they are no help if sprouts are the goal.

For sprouting specifically, there is no real stand-in. The mung bean is the classic sprouting bean, which is why it shows up wherever bean sprouts do, including a plate of Pad Thai - Vegetarian.

Buying and Storing

Mung beans are cheap and easy to find in Indian and Asian groceries, sold whole and green or split and yellow as moong dal. Buy whole beans if you want to sprout, since split ones cannot. Look for even color and skip any bag with shriveled or dusty-looking beans.

Store them in an airtight jar somewhere cool and dark, where they keep their quality for a year or more. They cook faster when fresh, so even though old beans stay safe to eat, use them within a year for the quickest, most even results.

To sprout, soak whole beans overnight, then drain and rinse them twice a day in a jar for two to four days until little tails appear. Keep them out of direct sun and use the sprouts within a few days.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Food group: Mung beans are a member of the Legumes and Legume Products US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese

绿豆

British (UK) term

Mung beans

en français

haricots mungo

en español

frijol mungo

How much do mung beans weigh?

Related

Legumes and Legume Products

Recipes using mung beans

There are 25 recipes that contain this ingredient.

Pad Thai - Vegetarian

Vegetarian Pad Thai with rice noodles, scrambled eggs, mung bean sprouts, grated carrots, and crushed peanuts in a tangy lime-fish sauce. Ready in 30 minutes.

Mung Bean Pancakes - Bindae Duk

Bring a little bit of the Eastern Hemisphere into your household with these pancakes made of mung beans and kim chee.

Black Lychee Tea Smoked Lobster & Mango

Lobster smoked over black lychee tea, brown sugar, and rice, then wrapped in rice paper with ripe mango, jicama, fresh herbs, and bean thread noodles. A spicy mango-sambal dipping sauce ties it all together.

Carrot & Mung Bean Salad

A highly flavourful warm salad made with mung beans. Mung beans are a superfood rich in minerals such as magnesium, potassium, folic acid, zinc and iron. They are also an excellent source of protein and fibre.

Thai-Style Seafood Casserole with Basil

Crab, shrimp, fish, and squid braised in a clay pot with ginger, coriander root, mung bean noodles, and fresh basil in a soy-oyster sauce. A spectacular Thai seafood feast for four.

Vegetable Pullao

Indian vegetable pullao with sprouted mung beans, long grain rice, green beans, and mushrooms seasoned with garam masala and popping mustard seeds. Oven-finished for fluffy, separate grains.

Fish Broth with Oysters & Saffron

Fish broth with oysters and saffron simmers a homemade fish fumet with juniper, leeks, and white wine, then adds clams, just-curled oysters, mung bean threads, radicchio, and saffron at serving. A delicate, restaurant-style seafood consomme.

Saag Vali Khichri

Saag vali khichri is a soothing Indian rice and mung bean porridge stirred with fresh spinach, cumin, coriander, and ghee. Nourishing comfort food with Ayurvedic roots, gentle on the stomach and big on warming spice.

Mung Bean Pastries

Thai mung bean pastries (khanom thuay) with a sweet mung bean flour base topped with coconut-rice flour cream and toasted yellow mung beans. A colorful, no-bake Thai dessert.

Mung Bean Pastries

Thai mung bean pastries (khanom thuay) with a sweet mung bean flour base topped with coconut-rice flour cream and toasted yellow mung beans. A colorful, no-bake Thai dessert.

Sweet Rice Cakes Stuffed with Yellow Beans

Thai sweet rice cakes (khanom tom) stuffed with yellow mung beans, coated in coconut and sesame sugar. Chewy, sweet-savory dumplings with a unique double-coating finish.

Peanut Buttery Stir-Fry

Vegetarian peanut butter stir-fry with crispy tofu, crunchy vegetables, and a ginger-garlic peanut sauce served over brown rice. Vegan-friendly with soy milk.

Vegetable Dahl Soup

Creamy Indian dahl soup blended silky smooth with split peas, mung beans, basmati rice, and vegetables. Spiced with garam masala, cumin, coriander, and a hit of asafetida.

Moong Samosa (Mung Bean Pastry)

Moong samosa filled with spiced mung beans, asafetida, mustard seeds, and amchur (green mango powder), deep-fried in ghee until golden. A vegetarian Indian snack with bold, tangy flavor.

Thai Rice Noodles

Stir-fried rice noodles tossed with garlic, ginger, shredded cabbage, bean sprouts, and fresh basil, finished with crushed peanuts and lime. A vegan Thai noodle dish ready in under 40 minutes.

Stir Fry Lentils & Beans

Red lentils, adzuki beans, and mung beans sauteed in sesame oil with mushrooms, water chestnuts, and warm spices like marjoram and nutmeg. A high-protein, plant-based stir-fry that's hearty and filling.

Mung Dal with Black Mustard Seeds

Mung dal with black mustard seeds, turmeric, and ginger, finished with a hot ghee tadka of sputtering mustard seeds and green chile. A traditional Indian lentil dish with bright, bold tempering.

Mung Bean Dhal

Mung beans are a great source of plant protein, fiber and minerals such as iron, zinc and potassium (needed to regulate blood pressure).

Mung Beans with Brown Sugar

Thai-style sweet mung bean soup with brown sugar and fresh ginger, simmered until creamy. A warm, comforting 3-ingredient Asian dessert that's naturally vegan and high in protein.

Five Dahl Soup

Five dahl soup, an Indian vegetarian classic blending mung beans, pigeon peas, chickpeas, and yellow and green split peas with ghee, turmeric, ginger, and a fragrant tarka of cumin, chilies, and asafetida.

Spicy Mung Bean Pate

Baked Indian-spiced mung bean paté with cauliflower, ginger, jalapeño, cumin, and turmeric. Vegan, gluten-free, and makes stunning little tarts or a sliceable loaf.

Gobhi Mung

Gobhi mung simmers split yellow mung beans with cauliflower, potatoes, and turmeric, finished with a sizzling cumin-ghee tarka. North Indian vegetarian comfort dish.

Usal (A Mung-Bean Curry)

Usal is a spiced Indian mung bean curry with cumin, turmeric, coriander, ginger, and garlic simmered in tomato. Vegetarian, high-protein, and ready in 40 minutes. Serve with rice or flatbread.

Spicy Whole Mung (or lentil) Beans

I made this dish and thought it was too bland. I made it again, doubling all the Indian spices, and it came out much better.

Buddhist Monk's Soup

Creamy vegan Buddhist soup with pumpkin, sweet potato, mung beans, peanuts, and fried tofu in rich coconut milk broth. A nourishing one-pot meal with 120+ reviews.

All 25 recipes