By Nadia Marshall
If you’re a fan of Ayurvedic cooking, chances are you've cooked with mung daal. If you've cooked with mung daal a lot, chances are you've come across a batch that just wouldn't cook properly.
Ayurveda teaches it is important to cook your legumes and pulses very thoroughly, until they are soft all the way through and, in the case of mung daal, until they have lost their form completely. Normally, split mung daal should only take 20-30mins of simmering to cook, especially if it has been pre-soaked.
But this isn't always the case. Sometimes, no matter how much, how high and how long you cook your mung daal, it doesn't break down.
This is not your fault. You've done nothing wrong! It simply means you have a batch of mung daal that is perhaps a little young, has been harvested a little too soon and therefore doesn't break down as it should.
Don't worry.... there is no need to throw this mung away! Instead, just cook it in a pressure cooker. Not even young mung can withstand the power of a pressure cooker! It should only need about 10-15 minutes (once it has boiled and come to pressure) to cook the daal.
Also, when you cook it, make sure you scrap the foam that accumlates at the top of the pot when you first bring it to the boil (which you can do before adding the pressure cooker lid) and also add hing/asafoetida to the pot. This will help ensure the young mung doesn't create any unwanted gas once digested.
I hope that helps x
Love
Nadia
Why Won't My Daal Cook?
