Keeping Myself Fed While Busy: Mung Bean Dip

Lately, as anyone who reads this journal often will know, I’m buried with things keeping me busy and keeping me from doing the things I really love to do. Cooking has become less enjoyable because there's no time to breathe between the things that absolutely must be done or else I shall be disappointing and annoying to other people who will be disappointed and annoyed with me as a result.

When life gets like this, eating healthy is tough. I’ve spent plenty of zoom meetings cooking while I listen and wait for my turn to talk because it’s the only time I have to cook. Ask anyone who has a schedule like this and they’ll say that a balanced diet is often the first thing to go. Sometimes it’s just easier to make a batch of something that I can just graze at while careening around so usually, at times like this, I’ll make a big batch of hummus that will last me a few days. A couple of weeks ago I made Ottolenghi's version and it was so delicious and spot on. Easily one of the best hummuses¹ that I’ve ever made. It found its way into snacks, salads and even breakfasts.

This week, as I stood looking in my pantry, I considered making that again until I saw the bag of mung beans that I bought three years… whoops, five years ago at Nijaya in Japantown. At the time, I had high and mighty ideas of sprouting them and keeping them going on my window sill for salads but they have been collecting dust in the pantry instead. Realizing that I needed to use them up instead of buying more food, I tossed the bag on the workbench and started searching for recipes. I found a few curries and one for a tasty sounding grain bowl that I might try this weekend. But the recipe for mung bean dip I found on Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks blog leapt out because it fit the bill for the grazing method of keeping myself fed while busy. My recipe begins with Swanson’s creative use of mung beans and is informed by Ottolenghi's solid technique of a hummus. The result was delicious, frugal and satisfying enough that I’ll make it again. A couple of additional bonuses are that it really only took about 30 minutes of active prep time to make and if you use tamari instead of soy sauce, it’s gluten free.

One note. Technically, this isn’t a hummus since it doesn’t use garbanzos. It’s somewhere between a dip and a spread and a puree. Call it what you want, just enjoy it.

The recipe is for paying subscribers so I hope to see you after the jump.