This is actually our dinner the other night. It's called sauteed mongo with moringa. The green leaves we call malunggay that we picked from our extended garden so you can imagine the freshness. The mung beans were boiled until tender before mixing with the sautee mix of garlic, onions and pork bits plus some seasoning. Just 2 pounds of mung beans can fill up a big pot.
I like mung beans; but I have only ever had them as sprouted beansprouts, and used them in salads or stirfry. The mix of greens in with the beans looks deliciious though, and we do a similar thing here when we cook beans. Ours are usually navy beans (small white beans) or sometimes pinto beans, which are the common brown ones and they are the cheapest ones. I always add some fresh greens, like spinach or kale when we have a pot of beans, and sometimes, we add green beans in with the cooked beans, too. Another food that I really like sprouted is lentils. We do use it in the regular way, as lentil soup, but when they are sprouted, they are similar to sprouted mung beans, but much cheaper to buy, at least out here they are. The sprouted lentils are great in a salad, or also as a stirfry ingredient. I have read about moringa, and it is supposed to be very healthy. I am not sure whether it would grow over here or not.
You usually buy dried lentils, just like you would buy dried beans, @Chrissy Page . They come is different colors, brown, greenish, and orange. They sprout really fast, and are easy to sprout in a quart jar. You can use them as soon as they have a tail, or let them go longer and get greenish on the ends. I like to let them get green; but not real long. I make a salad like a tomato/onion/cucumber salad, with italian dressing, and add in the sprouted lentils. You can also use them in stirfry , like you would a regular beansprout, or in scrambled eggs; but I like them in a salad the very best. Lentils are so cheap, and so easy to sprout, that they are a good seed to learn how to sprout. They taste more like a fresh pea when they are sprouted, and nothing like a cooked lentil tastes like.
I buy dried lentils a lot. Brown ones are my favorite, I noticed the orange ones are higher calorie. I have some in my pantry now but they never sprout anything.
They won't sprout unless you try to sprout them , @Chrissy Page . Lentils are easy to sprout, and all you need is a quart jar. Put about 1/4 cup of lentils in the jar, add lukewarm water and leave it soak overnight. The next day, drain out the water and use it to water houseplants with (it adds nutrients as it waters them). I have a little screen lid for the jar which makes sprouting easier. You just rinse the sprouts twice a day, and once they start to sprout , usually in a day or so, then I lay the jar sideways in the window so the sun will turn the sprouts green as they grow. In 3-4 days they are ready to eat. Then just rinse them and usually the skins will come off, and store them n the fridge until you use them all up. Sometimes, I stir them into soup just as it gets done; so they heat up but do not go all mushy from cooking. Ortherwise, I like them best in a lentil sprout salad. They taste a whole lot like fresh peas. Sprouting gives the lentils about 10 times the vitamins that you get from eating them unsprouted and cooked.