Mung Bean Salad – Maş Fasulyesi Piyazi

Mung Bean Salad – Maş Fasulyesi Piyazi

Piyaz in general is a bean salad with chopped onions and herbs in an olive oil – vinegar dressing. When it is used alone, piyaz refers to the “white bean salad”, the most popular piyaz in Turkish Cuisine.

Growing up in the Western Turkey, I never saw mung beans. I was introduced to them by my Indian friend Shobha who used to cook all sorts of interesting vegetarian dishes. Years later, when I saw mung bean salad at a Turkish friend’s house, I assumed that she adapted her piyaz recipe to mung beans. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that mung beans (Maş Fasulyesi) are grown in South Eastern Turkey and mung bean salad is a fairly popular salad in Adana. It is a simple recipe and the salad is tasty, light, nutritious. Enjoy!

• 1 cup mung beans (soaked in water overnight)
• 5-6 cups water
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• ½ cup parsley, finely chopped
• ¼ cup fresh dill, finely chopped
• juice of ½ lemon (2 table spoons)
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt to taste

In a large bowl, soak mung beans in water overnight. Use plenty of water and a large bowl, for when soaked, beans grow more than double in volume. Drain beans, set aside.

Combine 5-6 cups of water and beans, bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat, let it simmer for about 15 minutes, until beans are cooked. Drain well.

Place beans in a large bowl, add the rest of the ingredients. Mix with a spoon. Transfer to a serving dish.

Soaked Mung Beans