Roasted Carrot and Mung Bean Salad
Recipe adapted from Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi
I cannot express how much I adore Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbooks. I read them obsessively like picture books. I am in awe of his flavors and his magical way with veg. I am a serious fan girl. Today’s recipe is based on his Carrot and Mung Bean Salad from his marvelous book, Plenty More.
I altered his recipe ever so slightly to increase the nutritional density, replacing superfine sugar with maple syrup (high in antioxidants and manganese) and olive oil with walnuts (added protein, fiber, and omega-3 fats). His recipe also calls for caraway and cumin seeds, which I decided to omit out of personal preference. The key players in the dish remain the same, though, and they are scrumptious in combination. If you’ve never tried mung beans, this is a delicious place to start.
Special Equipment Needed: High-speed blender
Salad Ingredients:
2/3 cup dried green mung beans
5 large carrots, peeled
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup of fresh cilantro
The zest of one lemon (Preferably organic to avoid pesticide residue.)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (Added to your taste preference.)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (Optional. I decided to omit these.)
Dressing Ingredients:
1/2 cup walnuts
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
The juice of the lemon used above
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
Instructions for Preparing Salad Ingredients:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Place a pot of water on to boil.
Rinse and sort your mung beans, removing broken fragments and any stones or debris.
Once the water has come to a boil, add the mung beans and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until the beans are tender but not mushy.
While the beans are cooking, chop your carrots into batons, place them on a parchment-line baking sheet, top them with maple syrup, toss, and sprinkle with salt.
Roast the carrots in the oven until they are tender and caramelized, flipping them once during cooking.
Roughly chop the cilantro.
Zest the lemon using a microplane, zester, or the smallest holes on your grater.
Instructions for the Dressing:
Peel the garlic cloves.
Add the walnuts, garlic, white wine vinegar, chili flakes, the juice of the lemon, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, and the salt to the container of a high-speed blender.
Blend on medium-high.
If the dressing seems too thick, add a tablespoon of water at a time until it is smooth and creamy.
Once the mung beans are done, drain them and add them to a salad bowl.
Add the roasted carrots, the lemon zest, the cilantro, and 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds.
Top with the dressing and toss.
Taste and adjust your seasonings, adding more salt or fennel seeds, as desired.
This salad has big bold flavors from the lemon zest, cilantro, sweet maple carrots, and licorice-y fennel seeds. It is great hot or cold, and it holds well, so it is perfect for the lunchbox the next day. It is packed with protein, full of antioxidants, and has plenty of fiber for your good gut bugs.
Magical Mung Beans
If you are unfamiliar with mung beans, this is one powerful little legume.
Here is why I love mung beans:
They are super quick and easy to prepare, and they require no pre-soaking.
Mung beans are the most easily digested of all the legumes, with the fewest associated GI symptoms. In fact, they are so gentle on the tummy, they can be given to babies in place of infant formula. If you generally have difficulty tolerating beans, these little gems would be a great place to start.
Mung beans are packed with nutrition. A cup of cooked mungbeans has 212 calories, 14 grams of protein and 15 grams of fiber. They are an excellent source of essential amino acids, and they are high in antioxidants, flavanoids, iron, folate, zinc, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine), potassium, magnesium, and manganese.
Mung beans have been shown to help lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and systemic inflammation, and they have an anti-proliferative effect on cancer cells.
They are great for digestive health. Mung beans are filled with resistant starch, a favorite food of our good gut microbes. They also contain pectin, which improves bowel transit times.
They have been shown to stabilize fasting glucose and insulin levels, making them ideal for diabetes prevention and management.
Mung beans are full of folate, making them a great food addition for pregnant mothers.
Reach for an Ottolenghi cookbook, grab yourself some mung beans, and have a delicious day!
Wishing you optimal health with every bite.
🌱💕