Grated or mashed, mung bean is an essential component in many Asian dishes and learning how to cook these beans properly is a fundamental skill for every cook to master.  The traditional way of cooking the mung bean is to steam the beans and then use a potato ricer to grate or mash the mung bean.  If you’ve done this, you know this process is really time-consuming and requires multiple kitchen tools.  Luckily, there is a much easier way thanks to an appliance that most of us already have in our homes, our beloved rice cooker!  You don’t need anything fancy.  My rice cooker is super basic and has just 2 settings: Cook and Keep Warm and it does a fantastic job.  The secret is all in the timing.  Time it right and you will have perfectly prepared mung bean every time!

In my video, I mention that cooking mung bean (unlike rice) causes the water to bubble out of the rice cooker so I recommend using a tray or kitchen towel to catch the overflow.  Also, don’t fill to the rice cooker’s capacity or you will have one big watery mess.  For example, I have a 5-cup capacity rice cooker and so the most mung bean I’ll cook at one time is 2 cups of dry beans.  The more beans you put in the rice cooker the more water is displaced.  Because I have a rather small rice cooker, I have to add almost an additional cup of water about halfway through the cooking process because so much of it bubbles out.  (This may vary if you have a bigger rice cooker.)  So it’s best to make several small batches as per the recipe below.  It’s still faster than the traditional method and a little less guesswork if you’re not familiar with how your rice cooker handles the beans.  Good Luck!

Thai dessert ~ Mung Bean Pudding!