Fuss Less: Mung Beans with Spinach and Lemony Tehina

This here is a dish I came up with a while back while trying to think of tasty,simple and fast ways to incorporate more legumes into my diet. Vegetarians need legumes, and if you are a puritan such as my self, legumes need care and some planning in advance: I prefer using dry beans, lentils and the sort, which require an over night soak and in many cases ( lentils and several others being the exception to this rule ) a lengthy cooking. I never used to cook a big batch and freeze part of it for fear of harmful chemicals the plastic containers would leach into the  food, and of loss of nutrients. However, I have found that my semi-religious attitude was preventing me from eating the amount of legumes which I should be eating, and thus proving unfavorable. So, I am trying to adopt a more relaxed attitude: maybe it's better to have a couple of boxes of cooked chickpeas or beans hanging around in the freezer than to skip this healthful, tasty part of my diet all together. Of course I prefer to soak, cook and eat my legumes immediately, but this just isn't always possible. I will just have to evolve, then.

This dish demonstrates the metamorphosis perfectly. I soaked a cup of Mung Beans over night. The next morning, I had neither time nor and inclination to cook them. So I changed their water and let them soak some more: this can only do them good. As the seed absorbs water it comes to life and begins to germinate, making the nutrients held within it more readily available for our bodies. But by the evening, it was time to either go ahead and cook those babies, or let them sprout. I felt like doing neither. Rather then reproaching myself for my lack of conviction, indifference towards my health and plain darned laziness, I somehow managed to shut that inner censor off and put those poor little beans in a pot on the stove. I shall cook them, refrigerate them, and figure out what to do with them next, as the week unfolds.

What a happy decision. Some of my most satisfying meals have been made from what I thought to be an empty fridge, and a gathering of random products which didn't stir  in me much enthusiasm nor even  half a hope of putting together a decent meal. But they repay my efforts, and forgive my lack of smallness of faith, and arrange themselves into something magical. . What  I would have been  missing out on if I had shut the refrigerator door at the sight of that box of plain cooked beans and several lonesome tomatoes and stomped off grudgingly to the nearest cafe, tail between feet!  I resolve whole heartedly, religiously, to never again dismiss what's lying in front of me, but instead to pick it up and pay it a second thought, see if it isn't in fact something lovely.  I know I shall not always succeed in doing so: looking, seeing or making the best out of what's in front of me. But I will try.

Mung Beans with Spinach and Lemony Tehina 

1 cup mung beans, soaked for at least 8 hours

6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and cut into 8ths

2 medium red onions, thinly sliced

4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1 very large bunch of fresh spinach, rinsed

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper 

several tbsp olive oil

* As you can see in the photos, I made this once with spinach and once with swiss chard. Both were delicious, you can choose which ever you like or have on hand.

Cook mung beans in plenty of un-salted water till soft, but not crumbly. strain the beans from water and set aside. I a large skillet, warm olive oil. Add onion and garlic and cook till onions just begin to turn gold, but are still crisp. add tomatoes, cook for a few minutes, then add mung beans and spices. Cover, lower flame, and cook till tomatoes create a sauce. Add spinach and cook just till the leaves wilt. Add salt. Serve with a lemony, thin tehina sauce which you have made by mixing tehina with plenty of lemon juice, salt and quite a bit of water- you want it sour and on the runny side, like a thick cream. This dish is good either on its own, or you could pair it with rice, or baked sweet potatoes.. or whatever suits your fancy.