Geetha's Kitchen

Mung Sprouts Salad is a delicious snack or side dish; the lime juice and spices give it a snappy fresh flavor and piquancy perfect for a quick pick-me-up. Mung Sprout Salad is a version of Indian street fare. Although the salad can be made simpler without the veggies, we love the colorful and flavorful additions. The wonderful thing about this is that while amazingly satisfying, it is not a calorically dense food; so enjoy without guilt :D. We enjoy the fresh and crunchy sprouts any time of the year but particularly in the summer when we love lighter foods. It is quite similar to the  Sprouted Bean & Lentil Salad , Kale Bhel Salad and Chundal/Sundal . Sprouting beans, peas, lentils, or seeds makes their nutrition more available and easier to digest. Most bean, pea, and seed sprouts are also edible raw; exceptions are kidney beans, pintos, and limas - usually all big beans need to be cooked until well done. Sort, soak, and sprout the whole mung beans. Sprouting may tak...

Pesarat - pronounced as "pes-sir-rut" - is a delicious crepe-like pancake from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It gets its bright green color from the moss-hued whole mung beans. It is usually topped with minced onions and green chilies but I like to add my own rainbow-colored topping for better taste, visual appeal, and nutrition. To make the vegan version of O konomi yaki, I just stir in lots of the veggies into the batter and cook into thick pancakes the same way as these ; fabulous! Prepared similar to a dosa or adai , pesarat is a fine addition to one's griddle/pan- cake repertoire. To make a good thing even better, I often allow the beans to sprout a little before processing them into a batter. Although pesarats are made from freshly ground batter, leftover or fermented batter make fine pancakes also. However you make it, it is healthy and yummy. Pesarat is traditionally served with upma . Ingredients: 2 cups whole Mung Beans 2 hot green Chilies (cor...

Whether or not you believe in the idea of gaining good fortune for the New Year by eating of Hoppin' John and Greens the Southern way, you will definitely be eating healthy and tasty. Nor does one have to limit oneself to eating black-eyed peas only on New Years Day. :-) They can be made into various dals or salads, or added to stews and soups. In honor of the Southern tradition, I made a dal using black-eyed peas, and for the greens, since I had a bag of spinach, I made Aloo Palak - potatoes with spinach. I served the dal and Aloo-Palak with fragrant Basmati rice and I sure feel very lucky that we not only had a wonderful meal, but also for all else to be thankful about. Happy New Year Everyone! May your lives be enriched with abundance of all kinds, love, peace and joy everyday! This is a recipe that will give you two dishes for the effort of one! The sauteed onion mixture is common for both the dishes but then they diverge into the soupy dal and the potato and spinach ...

Molagushyam is another classic Kerala stew that we adored as children. Although it does not sport an impressive list of herbs or spices, it is simply divine and satisfying. I have only seen it served for family meals and never at any formal occasions. It definitely belongs in the homey, comfort food category. It is one of Amma's favorite dishes too; she would forgo the traditional rice in favor of enjoying a little more molagushyam! I remember that although she preferred using the Indian 'thali' or stainless steel plate instead of porcelain plates or bowls in general, she would bring out the wide soup bowls with a big smile to serve the molagushyam :). According to Ayur Veda, mung beans are restorative and strength building. Mung bean, especially the split yellow dal, generally leads the list of the "pathiam" or convalescent foods which are the traditional get-well foods which are easy to digest and nutritious. Mung beans provide high quality nutr...