Moong Bean Dal

Bowl of mung beans curry in a bowl placed on a plate. In the background is a bowl of rice and mung curry.

Moong bean dal or Gujarati mag is a healthy, nutrients packed, no onion no garlic moong bean curry or a dal. Soaked moong beans is cooked until soft and then simmered along with the seasoning. Protein packed dish to serve with rice and roti.

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Gujarati, Indian Cuisine

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 20

Servings

Calories 222kcal

Author Usha Rao

Equipment

1 Bowl to soak dal
1 3 qt Instant Pot or a stovetop pressure cooker
1 Small pan for tadka
Knife & Cutting Board

Ingredients

½ cup Moong Beans soaked for 2-3 hours
1 tablespoon Oil
1 teaspoon Ghee ~ Clarified Butter I used unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon Cumin
¼ teaspoon Mustard Seeds
2 Clove
2 Cardamom optional, I added by mistake in the video & step by step pics
½ inch Cinnamon Stick
4 - 5 small Green Chilies I used 5 and adjust to heat tolerance level
½ inch Ginger chopped or 1 teaspoon chopped Ginger
¼ teaspoon Hing ~ Asafetida
½ teaspoon Coriander Powder ~ Dhania Powder
¼ - ½ teaspoon Rajwadi Garam Masala or garam masala of your choice. Start with ¼ teaspoon and add more to taste.
¾ teaspoon Salt adjust to taste
1-2 teaspoon Lime Juice
Small piece of Jaggery I do not

Instructions

Prepare & Cook Moong Beans

Soak moong for 2-3 hours.
Wash moong beans and cook in a pressure cooker with 1 cup of water. Check notes for cooking un-soaked beans.
In Instant Pot (IP), 4 or 5 minutes on manual/pressure cook setting. In Indian stovetop pressure cooker, cook for 5 whistles. Let pressure release naturally.
Once the pressure drops, open the lid right and/or remove the inner pot from IP and keep aside. Otherwise, beans will continue to cook and become too soft. Beans should be soft but firm.

Tadka

Heat butter and oil in a pan for tadka.
When oil is hot, add mustard seeds, cumin, clove, cardamom (opt), cinnamon stick and let the seeds crack.
Immediate add green chilies, chopped ginger and hing. Let ginger roast until raw smell is gone. You can also add a red chili for some heat and flavor.
Add coriander powder, garam masala and turmeric and mix well.
Keep aside little bit of tempering for garnish.

Put it Together

Add tadka to cooked beans. If you prepared tadka in a saucepan, add moong beans to the tempering.
Give a good stir, add salt, about 1 cup water or as required.
Stir, cover and bring to a boil and simmer for few minutes until spices blend in and reaches desired consistency.
Mind you, mag thickens as it cools. It should not have too much gravy and at the same time, it should not be very dry either.
Add jaggery if using and lime juice. Stir and turn off the heat.
Serve with rice or roti or any Indian flat bread.

Video

Notes

Cooking Moong - In Instant Pot, cook soaked beans for 4-5 minutes. I usually do 4 minutes but certain batch of moong takes 5 minutes. I would recommend 4 minutes. For un-soaked beans 8 minutes usually works but sometimes stubborn batch of moong takes 10 minutes.
In Instant Pot, once pressure drops, remove the inner pot and keep it aside. Leaving it in the IP, beans will continue to cook from the steam and the hot plate.
If the beans is under cooked, simmer it a little longer when you bring the mag to boil after adding the tadka in "Put it Together" step.
Spice & Heat Level - Adjust green chilies and garam masala to your heat tolerance level.
Ginger - You can use ginger paste but I highly recommend chopped ginger in this recipe.
Second Tempering - For additional flavor, temper 1 red chili and few curry leaves in little oil and pour over mag before serving. I normally keep aside some tempering before adding to cooked moong to skip second tempering. That is lazy me!!
Variation - Few Gujarati mag recipes online call for tomatoes. If using tomatoes, cook in the tadka until soft. Then combine tadka and cooked moong, and follow rest of the recipe.
Addition of tomatoes gives the mag a tangy flavor.
Onion Garlic - This is a no onion garlic recipe. If you do not have any dietary restrictions, saute onions and crushed garlic in tadka.
Nutrition - Values listed are approximate calculation.

Nutrition