Let's Make The Internet A Better Place
I’m on Mastodon a lot. I like it not as a place for recording my thoughts as much as for having conversations. (Give unto your blog what it your blog’s, give unto your social media what is social media’s. Or something like that.) I could try to start a conversation about what I write about on my blog, but I don’t usually want to.
I think the internet is most valuable when it has *diverse* content. I can’t tell you how many times I have looked up a recipe on the internet—or even within one site—and found the same thing repeated, sometimes word for word. Just...don’t. Link to the original content and add your own thoughts. Make the internet a better place.
Which is why I’m probably going to talk more about food (Food on the brain? Me? Never!) and health here. If so moved, I’ll talk about politics, as I do on Mastodon, but I really, really do not want to talk about food in great detail there. This isn’t about me being judged—I mean, this time; well, mostly—as much as it is trying to be the bare minimum of considerate. I see people looking for mutual aid every day, and they frequently reference needing to feed themselves or their family members. “Let me tell you about how I managed to make myself delicious food with my dietary restrictions” seems like the most tone-deaf thing I could post on such a platform.
But my blog is not social media, so let me tell you about mung bean batter.
My dad is Korean, and one of my earliest food memories is of bindaetteok, or mung bean pancakes. I didn’t like them. They had chopped up peppers and onions, so eww. Fortunately, I’m not four anymore, and now I really do.
You know how JustEgg is a really popular vegan egg substitute? It’s based on mung beans—only JustEgg has gotten rid of the fiber but kept the protein. Just say no.
I’d seen mung beans recommended as an egg substitute in other recipes as well as a crepe, but it wasn’t until I got my hands on the stuff at my local H-Mart (distributed by a Vietnamese company—respect) that I started playing around in earnest. All lentils are going to produce a pancake/crepe that will be sturdy and hold onto ingredients, either as a mix-in or as a topping, but the protein in mung bean gives it a fluffier texture that makes it more pliable.
It works as a crepe, but it also works—in combination with hummus!—as a quiche filling, and if you mix it with nutritional yeast, it has the same feel as if you’ve added cheese. I was thinking about all of the ways that I could start playing around with it that way, but my husband looked at it from a different angle and suggested using it as a crust. Guess what? That works perfectly.
What I do is heat up a small, oven-proof pan, add about half a teaspoon of oil to the pan, take about two or three tablespoons of batter, spread it around, and let it set for a minute or two. Then I spoon on filling—however much I want that the pan can accommodate—level it out, then put more of the batter on top. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and it hasn’t been a big deal when it doesn’t reach the sides. I put it in the oven for about seventeen minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, then maybe broil it for three minutes if it needs to brown a little bit. Boom—done, and delicious. When my filling is a combination of cooked greens, onions, and hummus with a little nutritional yeast, it tastes like spanakopita, which I have missed. And if I let it cool long enough—unlikely, but I has happened—I can lift it up like a hand pie.
Highly recommended.
Did I not share the recipe?
- Soak mung beans in enough water to cover overnight. It doesn’t matter how much, other than that it should be enough to get caught in the blades of your blender.
- Blend on high. I have a Vitamix and I use my Smoothie setting, but again, this is something I ate in the seventies. If you don’t have an expensive blender, blend at the highest setting you have, building up from the slowest.
And that’s it. Enjoy.
Deb in the City
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