Still on my Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey cooking kick, I made this bulgar and mung bean dish a few nights after Madras rice with yogurt. It’s January so the tomatoes aren’t very good right now. Instead of the fresh ones recommended in the recipe, I used store-bought oven-roasted tomatoes from Whole Foods. I’d intended on adding parsley to garnish the dish at the end but it turns out all I had was spring onion. Najmieh recommends dill. I skipped the butter “garnish” as I’ve lost the taste for it and now that my cholesterol is finally “normal” I don’t want to rock the boat unnecessarily.

Fertile Crescent bulgar and mung bean pilaf

I got my mung beans at the Sunset Super. I’d only ever used them for a Southern vegetable stew with saffron and lots of vegetables in a tomato base. It’s cool to find other exciting recipes for this simple-to-prepare (because it doesn’t require a lot of pre-soaking) and tasty bean.

Even with some improvisation, the dish turned out really well. It had a hearty nutty flavor. The tomatoes were tangy and sweet. We both liked it a lot. My beans weren’t quite done enough though still tasted great. Hegui is already talking about having it again sometime soon, of course, with a bit longer cooking time. Maybe I should have actually measured the water after all?

some key ingredients for Fertile Crescent bulgar and mung beans pilaf

Fertile Crescent Bulgar and Mung Bean Pilaf

1 cup mung beans, picked over and washed
4 cups water
2 ½ tsp Kosher salt
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp cumin seeds
2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 Serrano chile, stem and seeds removed, chopped
2 cups bulgar
Black pepper
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp turmeric
½ cup oven-roasted tomatoes
Finishing olive oil and green for garnish

Combine mung beans, water and ½ tsp salt in saucepan. Bring to boil then simmer about fifteen minutes or until beans are tender.

Heat vegetable oil in a deep frying pan or wok until hot. Add cumin seeds and fry for about 10 seconds. Add onion and fry about fifteen minutes until onion is golden brown. Add ginger, garlic, chile, and bulgar. Fry about two minutes more to brown the bulgar. Add 2 tsp salt, black pepper, sugar, turmeric, tomatoes and mung beans with remaining water. Stir and bring to boil.

Simmer covered about 20 minutes or until water is absorbed. The recipe calls for dill as a garnish, which I didn’t have. If you do, toss some in now. I added spring onion which I had on hand. Toss together with some finishing olive oil (Najmieh adds butter here). Adjust salt if needed (we added more). Plate and serve.