Have you ever made mung beans before? Chances are you're here because you found a bag of the cute little legumes at the back of your cupboard and are wondering what the heck to do with them. Welcome! I'm going to walk you through several different methods for cooking mung beans that will leave you with perfectly cooked beans every time.
Let's get our mung on
There are a lot of different instructions for how to cook mung beans on the internet, and I've tried them all. Woah, you guys, is it ever a jungle out there. So how do you know who to trust? The lady with 18 cups of mushy mung beans in her freezer, that's who.
We are huge fans of beans here on HNL, especially if they're cooked from scratch. We've already covered How to Cook Black Beans and How to Cook Black Eyed Peas, among others.
Let's go on a mung bean journey together, my friend. I'll tell you everything I've learned from many, MANY trials for cooking mung beans stove top, Instant Pot mung beans, and cooking mung beans in the slow cooker.
Stick with me, and I'll make sure you've got perfectly cooked mung beans every time.
Do you need to soak mung beans?
No! Mung beans are small and quick to cook compared to other beans like black beans or chickpeas, so no soaking is required before cooking them.
Of course you can soak your mung beans if you prefer. Many people swear by soaking beans, discarding the soaking water, and then cooking them in fresh water to remove flatulence-causing compounds and make them easier to digest.
Please note that all of the cooking times in this post are for unsoaked mung beans.
Let's cook mung beans from scratch together!
We're going to go through a few different cooking techniques, but regardless of which one you choose the first thing you need to do is put your beans into a mesh strainer and give them a good rinse. Sift through the beans with your fingers and check for any small stones or anything else that might be hiding with the beans that you wouldn't want to bite into.
Cooking mung beans stovetop
Cooking your mung beans on the stove top is the most simple and straightforward method. It doesn't require any soaking in advance, and the beans are nicely cooked in about 30 minutes.
To cook mung beans on the stove top, place in a pot and cover with plenty of water (I usually go with one part mung beans to three parts water). Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the beans are tender.
Instant Pot Mung Beans
Guys, I'm not going to lie, cooking mung beans in the Instant Pot is kinda tricky. This is why I have 18 cups of mushy mung beans in my freezer right now!
I tested several of the most popular recipes on the internet before FINALLY figuring out what actually works.
After many, MANY tests, I made a batch where I set the Instant Pot to 0 minutes at high pressure and a 10 minute natural release, and ladies and gentlemen we have a winner!!!
In the photo below we have uncooked mung beans on the left, and perfectly al dente salad worthy mung beans on the right.
That's right, the perfect instant pot mung beans are cooked for zero minutes at high pressure. But this doesn't actually mean they're cooked for zero minutes. Keep in mind that it will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure and then there is a 10 minute natural release period before you flip the valve to release the remaining pressure.
The total cook time for zero-minute mung beans in the Instant Pot is actually about 20 minutes.
Slow Cooker Mung Beans
I tend to not cook beans in the slow cooker these days since the Instant Pot is so much faster, but for those of you who want to "set it and forget it" you can certainly use your slow cooker for mung beans.
Just as cooking mung beans on the stove top, you'll want to add one part beans to three parts water. You can set your slow cooker on high for 3 hours, or low for about 6 hours.
Cooking times will vary from slow cooker to slow cooker, but the advantage of this method is being able to take the lid off and test the beans when they are close to done.
The best way to cook mung beans
If you ask me what the best way to cook literally any other bean is, I'll tell you it's the Instant Pot. But man oh man are mung beans tricky to get right this way!
Since these are quick cooking beans that don't require soaking, my recommendation is to cook them on the stovetop so you can monitor them to see when they are perfectly done.
How to Cook Mung Beans
Equipment
Instructions
- Rinse your mung beans well, and check over for any stones.
Stovetop instructions
- Place 1 cup mung beans and 3 cups water in a large pot.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the beans are tender. This will take about 30 minutes.
Instant Pot instructions
- Place 1 cup mung beans and 3 cups of water into the insert of an Instant Pot.
- Seal the lid and ensure that it is set to "sealing".
- Set to high pressure for 0 (zero) minutes.
- Once the Instant Pot has reached pressure it will beep and start naturally releasing the pressure. Allow to natural release for 10 minutes, and then flip the valve to "venting" and release the remaining pressure.
Slow Cooker instructions
- Place 1 cup of beans and 3 cups of water in the slow cooker.
- Set to HIGH for 3 hours, or LOW for 6 hours. Check beans towards the end of the cooking time.
Notes
- You can scale the quantity of beans up or down, but it should always be one part beans to three parts of water for cooking.
- Drain any remaining water when the beans are cooked.
- Cooked mung beans can be stored for up to 5 days in the fridge, or 3 months in the freezer.
Deborah says
thanks for the advice on how to cook these little ones
Katie Trant says
You're welcome!
KarenLee says
When cooking on stovetop should the pot be covered or uncovered? And are you able to suggest a source for good quality beans?
Thanks
KarenLee
Katie Trant says
Hi KarenLee! I leave the pot uncovered or simmer with the lid ajar. As for the beans, you want to make sure they're "fresh" as it were, as in not sitting on the shelf for ages and ages, so look for a busy store or a bulk food section that gets filled often. I live in Sweden so probably the brands I have access to are not the same as yours 🙂
Carole Hildebrandt says
I bought Organic Moong Dal (Mung Bean Hulled Split). Does the Mung Bean soup recipe change at all? cooking time? quantities?
Love this recipe.. I'm a Mung Bean fan because of heynutritionlady.
Katie Trant says
Hey Carole, I haven't tested this recipe with split mung beans, so I'm not sure how the cooking time would change. Quantities would be the same. One thing to note is that the texture will be quite different. The split beans will turn quite mushy, like red lentils, so this will be thicker, more stew-like, and no intact beans.
John Dillon says
I bought the mung beans for that recipe but have not tried it. My general thought is I could never think what to do with eggs in the old days so a vegan egg still means nothing to me look for roller.mage on Threads
Monique Stone says
Is it the same directions for the split beans? I wanted to confirm because I wasn’t sure if they would soften faster than the whole bean?
Katie Trant says
Hi Monique - No, split beans will cook much faster. Since they are split in half and have the husk removed, they are much faster cooking than whole beans. I haven't tested the cooking times for split mung beans, however, so can't advise on that. Sorry!
John says
Lovely boiled for about 25 minutes and ate with a spoon. Was looking at my 11 way cooker pot but it is not an instant pot although where it was in the cupboard maybe not used for a long while. Thanks nutritionlady
ScottishFlower says
I followed the recipe and it worked out nicely. My mungo beans were soaked overnight, so they were a bit on the overcooked side even with 0 minutes, but perfect for making the hummus I wanted to try. Thank you!
Jedidah says
Don't throw away overly mushy and overcooked mung beans. You can still use them! If not for dahl or stew or porridge, then you can also throw out excess water and strain through a fine sieve - keeping all the mush. Dry fry on low heat with your choice of flavourings, constantly stirring and folding until it becomes a dough that is not sticky to hand or spatula. Shape or press into cookie cutter/mini cake molds and you have mung bean cakes.
Katie Trant says
I used them all to make mung bean hummus!
Analise says
Interesting, thanks.
Ruby says
When you like the Indonesian/Asian mung bean porridge, the instant pot is great! The porridge contains o.a. mung beans, coconut milk, (palm-) sugar. You can find several recepies on the internet, just search on 'bubur kacang hijau' ;).
Brian says
I use a stove-top pressure cooker for my mung beans. Once the pressure has come up, I set a timer for five minutes. At the end of the time, I turn off the heat, remove the pot to another burner to sit for ten minutes before opening. Perfect results every time. But if I cook for six to seven minutes, then I can count on mush. Thanks for your article.
Katie Trant says
Thanks for the comment, Brian! I have never used a stove-top pressure cooker so it's great to know the details for this.
Z says
Sorry, but my mung beans were still rock hard after I did this.
T says
Great advice, thank you so much!.
I wanted a soup/stew dish so I added dried mushrooms, garlic and chilies to my mung beans. I also used turkey broth instead of water.
Initially I cooked everything at 1 minute pressure cook with 10 minutes natural release. The mung beans were al dente but I prefer them a bit softer so I ran the ensemble again with the same parameters - Perfection.
The next time I make this recipe I will set 2 minutes pressure cook and ten minutes natural release.
I love mung beans but dislike babysitting on the stove so your instant pot advice really is appreciated.
Katie Trant says
Adding other ingredients to the beans definitely impacts the cooking time. My mung bean curry, which also starts with unsoaked mung beans, I do for 10 minutes at high pressure and then a natural release.
Elizabeth Shipley says
I have found a recipe for making Just Egg using mung beans.
Denice Willison says
Hi Elizabeth,
I would love it if you could share the Just Egg recipe. I have quite a liking for those eggless eggs!
Nik says
Hi Katie, thanks for the great information and experimentation. I’m going to give these a shot. I’d like to suggest an alternate reason why the quick release makes your beans mushy. The moment you hit the quick release the pressure in the chamber drops. This drop in pressure causes the temperature to drop in the chamber (not increase the temperature, like you propose). Now, as the pressure drops the boiling point of the water drops rapidly. The water responds by violently ejecting steam into the chamber. This violent movement of water particles can actually rip apart the skin and fibers of the beans (after all, some of the water is inside the beans!) resulting in mush. Conversely the natural release method, although the temperature drops more slowly, avoids this violent movement of steam out of the water. So in this case, slow and gentle wins the race.
Jose says
Thank you for this post. I was hesitant to do the 0 minutes cook time on the IP, because not even lentils are done that fast and I had bad experiences with other types of beans cooked for 40 minutes and still hard. But I'm glad I followed your advice for the mung beans as it turned out perfectly. Thanks again!
Katie Trant says
Trust me, I know! I started with the same cooking time as lentils assuming it would work out, but nope. Had to do soooooo many trials to get it right.