rants & recipes

Lately, I've been trying to finish off our stores of beans before stocking up on any more from Whole Foods. I'm down to a few black beans, some kidney beans, green and French lentils. And quite a few mung beans. I'm not even sure I've ever cooked mung beans before? If so, it was only once. And, apparently, quite forgettable.

Tonight, I also had quite a lot of asparagus to cook - asparagus is finally on sale - so I decided for some kind of mung bean curry, with asparagus. I threw together the following, based off of a recipe I found online and this okra eggplant curry I fix somewhat often.

Next time, I'll probably bump up the spices some. Maybe 1/2 again more for the dried spices.

• 2 bunches of asparagus, chopped
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 tsp ginger, micro-planed
• 4-5 cloves garlic, micro-planed
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1/2 tsp nigella seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/4 cup ketchup (or 2 tbsp tomato paste, 2 tbsp water)
• about 1 cans' worth of cooked mung beans (I started out with 2 cups dry and that made A LOT of cooked beans! From that over-abundant amount I had 4 cups, cooked, that I didn't use in this recipe.)

1. Start whole seeds simmering in some olive oil. Be careful not to burn them.
2. Add onion and carrot and cook about 5-10 minutes.
3. Mix together dried spices, tomato, onion and garlic. If needed, add a little water to make a paste. Add to onions and carrots, stir to coat.
4. Add asparagus and cook until done to taste.
5. Stir in cooked mung beans.
6. Serve over rice.