Mung bean porridge

Today let’s make an easy, delicious, hearty and super-nutritious recipe for mung bean porridge called nokdu-juk (녹두죽)! The mild, smooth, and soft porridge is not only comforting but also nutty and filling.

Korean cuisine has a lot of different kind of porridges (in Korean:죽 juk), and I showed you many of them already. Nokdu-juk is one of the simpler ones you can make, and for that reason it’s also one of the most popular.

It’s great for any meal, especially for breakfast when you need something nutritious in a hurry. It’s often made for people who are recovering from an illness because it goes down easy, is hot and comforting, and is gentle on the stomach. Many Korean moms have made this for their children over the years. It’s one of the first solid foods many Korean babies eat.

Traditionally nokdu-juk is made with whole dried green mung beans, but it takes time and effort to remove the skins and soften the small hard rock like beans, so in this recipe I use dried and skinned mung beans.

Nokdu-juk by itself is tasty but I found out that when it’s served with some fluffy crispy seaweed chips (gim-bugak), it double triples the taste. Break up some gim-bugak and place it on top of your nokdu-juk and you’ll enjoy the soft creamy porridge and crispy and chewy chip bits with an enticing sea aroma! This is not the traditional way to eat this porridge, but I found that it’s so delicious this way that I had to share the idea with you. It’s a similar idea to American soup and crackers. Try it out!

Ingredients

For 4 servings

• 1 cup dried and skinned mung beans
• ½ cup rice
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 6 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Gim-bugak (optional)

Directions

1. Combine the mung beans and rice in a bowl, and wash and strain a few times.
2. Soak in water for at least 1 hour, then strain.
3. Put the sesame oil into a heated sauce pan. Add the beans and rice and stir with a wooden spoon over medium high heat until the rice turns a little translucent, for a few minutes.
4. Add water, stir and cover. Let it cook for 20 minutes. It will easily boil over, so when it does, half cover it with the lid and let it keep bubbling and boiling. Stir it occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
5. Turn down the heat to low and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until the porridge turns soft, smooth, and a little thicker. Add salt and stir.
6. Ladle the porridge into a serving bowl and crush some gim-bugak over top if you have it. Serve right away, by itself or with kimchi or cold cucumber soup.