Recipe credit: Darshana Muzumdar
Serves 4 as part of a traditional Indian meal.
In the traditional version the whole moong beans are roasted till they start to pop and then they are cooked. Many contemporary cooks use moong dal without roasting it instead.
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole green gram or whole moong
- ¼ cup sago or sabudana (tapioca starch balls)
- ½ cup grated coconut
- ½ cup jaggery or as per taste
- 10-15 cashew nuts broken into small pieces
- A handful or ¼ cup finely slivered coconut pieces
- 5-6 cardamoms powdered
Method
Rinse the sago once and drain. Add enough water to just about cover it. Soak it for 4-6 hours. The water should be absorbed completely. Separate the sago balls gently with your fingers and keep them aside ready to use. Roast the moong till it begins to split. If you are using split moong instead of the whole moong to begin with, roast it till it starts changing color. Soak in water for 15-20 minutes and then cook in boiling water till it is soft. In the meantime, grate the coconut and grind it with just enough water to help the blades of the blender move. Pour this into a damp muslin cloth placed over a pot and squeeze the milk out. This should yield about 1 cup. Add the sago, coconut milk and jaggery to the cooked moong and continue to cook it on a low flame. Add the powdered cardamom, cashew nut pieces, and slivered coconut pieces. Continue to cook on a low flame until it begins to thicken. Remove from heat and serve hot or cool and serve at room temperature. If it is cooled in a refrigerator, the amount of jaggery may need to be increased to get the same sweetness.
For the Whole-Food Plant-Based (WFPB) version:
Use date paste instead of jaggery and avoid using sago. Simply blend the dates with a little water to make the paste. If the dates are not soft, soak them for 2-12 hours depending on how hard they are. They can also be cooked and then blended for this recipe. Use a little brown rice instead of the sago (less than ¼ cup). Use the entire finely ground fresh coconut without straining it instead of the coconut milk.
Note: Personally, I like this sweet dish made without roasting the moong beans as mentioned above and is an all time favorite dessert. It has more roughage with the green skin on and will be WFPB, but tastes better if made with moong dal without the green skin on.