This is a really spicy delicacy in Maharashtra. I’ve never had it in India before, so don’t know whether my recipe is authentic, but do give it a go and let me know!! This dish can be eaten as a light dinner or for brunch. Since sprouted mung beans are it’s basis, it’s quite a healthy dish as compared with other chaat foods. The sweet, sour and eye wateringly spicy taste is delicious, and one can adjust the heat of the dish according to taste.
The dish has several elements, so at first, I was quite put off, thinking that it would take a whole afternoon to prepare. I was surprised that it didn’t, and that all the ingredients I used were staples in out pantry. The only element of the dish that requires pre-contemplation is sprouting the mung beans. I placed about 1 cup of mung beans in water overnight, and followed this by wrapping them in muslin cloth for 2 days (1 day would be enough). I’ve recently read that you can sprout beans and freeze them and use them when required. They retain their freshness and are the much more nutritious alternative to boiling the heck out of lentils! I’ll definitely be giving this a go which will mean I’ll be making this dish on quite a regular basis!
The first part of the dish are the sprouted mung beans which are lightly seasoned and steamed. For this you will need:
4 cups of sprouted mung beans
1 large onion, diced
1-2 tsp of chilli powder, garam masala
Salt to taste
Curry leaves, oil, mustard seeds, turmeric, asafoetida
5-6 tbs lemon juice (I used 2 tbs tamarind pulp as we’d run out of lemons)
Saute curry leaves, mustard seeds, turmeric and asafoetida in hot oil until mustard seeds start cracking. Immediately add the onion and sauté until transparent. Add all the spices followed by the sprouted mung beans. Stir and leave to steam for about 5 minutes until beans are cooked. Finally, add salt to taste and a generous squeeze of lemon juice for that spicy and sour flavour.
The second part of the dish is the ‘Tari’ which is a spicy curry which goes over the mung beans. The spicyness of this can be adjusted according to taste, but I have heard that this is meant to be incredibly spicy!!
1 large onion sliced
6 cloves garlic sliced
1 inch ginger roughly cut into small pieces
4 heaped tbs desiccated coconut
2 tomatoes, diced
5-6 large red dry chillies (I used 5-6 chillies, but I might try a few more for added heat next time :D )
Fry the above in some oil for atleast 10 minutes or until the onion is a medium brown colour and the oil starts to separate. Put this through a food processor until you have a smooth paste.
Red chilli powder 2 tsp
Garam Masala 4 tsp
Turmeric 1 tsp
Jaggery 1 tbs (or you can use sugar)
Salt
6-8 tbs oil
Heat oil in a saucepan. Add the chilli powder and turmeric straight into the oil, followed by garam masala and the onion tomato paste from earlier. You will find that this gives the tari a ravishingly red appearance. Add 6 cups of water. Add salt and jaggery to taste. Simmer this until it boils before taking it off the heat.
To serve:
I like to serve each element separately so that each person can adjust the heat of the dish to their liking. Serve the mung bean mix in a bowl, the tari, 1 bowl of fine sev, 1 bowl of navratan farsan (a thicker sev is in this), and a bowl each of chopped onion, chopped tomato and lemon wedges. Each person then takes some of the mung bean mixture, tops this with tari,, followed by each of the 2 sevs, and topped with onion and tomato, with a squeeze of lemon on top. Serve with some rounds of bread to soak up the tari.
Serves 4-6.
Enjoy!
