Earthy mung beans, crisp poached green pea and green beans, purple pops of red onion, and crunchy almonds throughout, this very green mung bean salad is as bright and sunny as a fresh summer day. ⏤ It's a very green salad without the usual green friends, yet it's a simple nourishing salad you wouldn't really think about making.

Whoa! Lettuce, herb free salad Green salad.

There it is, in all, it’s shockingly green wonderfulness. ⏤ If I just saw that post title on someone else’s blog, I would think three things:

It must very very green. (health-ish)
I going to need to load up on greens at the store.
Mung bean? What is that? Way too scary.

If this is any comfort to how you might be feeling, I had shown some of these pictures of this green mess in a bowl to Khaled and he said with a crinkled nose, “What is that? Please Sarah I really don't like food experiments. You, know where going to a picnic and other people are going to eat this. Are sure you want to bring it.”

So no, you’re not the only one wondering what this craziness is all about. PS. He might not want me to tell you this, but he ate it and totally loved it. And so did all our friends at the picnic. Psh, boys.

What's a mung bean?

Today I’m gonna get all y’all excited about discovering a new delicious green international food. Yeah? Let’s do it.

Mung beans are a small green legume that is the smallest member of the bean family. they're closely related to chickpeas, lentils and pea!

These magical beans are also used as sprouts, actually, they're the most popular sprout.

The mung beans. They are widely used in Asian and some Middle Eastern countries and they cook almost exactly like lentils. LENTILS! My favourite if you hadn't noticed yet! And they're something you can almost for sure buy wherever you live. Mung beans may be a little harder to find in some locations.

You can also use Lentils and mung bean interchangeably. Say you have a great recipe for lentils you can swap it for mung beans. Whether you use lentils or mung beans, you’ll pretty much turn into a walking picture of health. These little guys are your friends.

Mung Beans are Protein Superhero

In fact, mung beans contain up to 25% of protein per weight (Anwar, Latif et al. 2007). They also contain essential amino acids leucine, lysine and phenylalanine/tyrosine and if that's not enough their also a great source of Vitamin B1, Vitamin B9, Iron, Copper, Magnesium, Manganese, & Phosphorus.

A serving of Mung beans contains 80% of our daily folate requirement. Say what?

OK, Sarah that a lot of jargon about mung beans!

I know it is, but I'm a little bit of a food nerd ⏤ sorry! In simple terms eating mungs will help with:

Lowering Blood Pressure
Combating Inflammation
Managing Type 2 Diabetes
Lowering your “Bad” Blood Cholesterol
Combats Obesity (source)

So now that you know a little bit about mung beans, let’s talk about how to make this salad.

What goes in the mung bean salad?

Any great salad recipe is essentially a flexible formula—the mung bean is a wonderful blank canvas. Our very green mung salad has—shockingly enough—green flavours! We love tangy quick-pickled red onions and feta cheese against the juicy sweetness pop of sweetness in the green peas and delicate crunch of poached green beans. Here’s what you’ll need for this kinda-sorta legume salad:

Mung Beans! well, it can't be a mung bean salad without them, but if you insist on substituting try green lentils, so at least we stay on the green theme 😉
Green Peas, lightly poached in boiling water, you really want to keep the vibrant green colour for this salad. If you're going to make this salad ahead of time, add the poached pea just before serving.
Fresh green beans, this vegetable can definitely be substituted for fresh sugar snap pea or yellow string beans (but it won't really a very green mung bean salad.
Pickled red onions: Add the juice of one lemon, and a tablespoon of salt to one thinly sliced red onion and allow to marinate for 30 minutes.

How to make this mung bean salad?

This simple salad is prepared in few simple steps, let dive in:

Boil your mung beans ⏤ they may separate during cooking this is normal
Blanch your greens, toss into some boiling water and simmer for about 1- 2 minutes.
Whip up the dressing, pour and marinate.
Add almonds, I forget to add them when taking the photo. They're a very tasty addition but completely optional.

Easy peasy! A delicious and healthy salad ready to travel any way with you.

Make This sweet dream of a salad Dressing, and Use It On Everything.

While you could dress this salad with a store-bought vinaigrette dressing and it would still taste just fine, we really prefer the flavour and simplicity of this homemade salad dressing. It’s easy, quick and great on just about anything. Just whisk together:

lemon juice
apple cider vinegar
olive oil
honey
garlic
black pepper

Tools You’ll Need:

Our easy pasta salad recipe needs no special tools! We bet you already have:

A great big salad bowl for tossing & serving.
A big pot for cooking pasta.
A good colander.
A sharp knife and cutting board.

How Was the Party?

Who did you make this very green mung bean salad recipe for? And how did they like it? We want to know! Tag us on Instagram using @deliciously.mediterranean and #deliciouslymediterranean. Happy eating!