Mung beans are good for vegetarians because they are one of the best plant based sources of protein.  Some amino acids are there; they cannot be synthesized within our body, those are called essential amino acids. Mung beans contain some of those essential amino acids, like phenylalanine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, lysine, and arginine. 

I have written an article about the health benefits of Mung beans.  You can read that article under the heading “Food & Nutrition”.  Milk rice is a popular breakfast  in Sri Lanka. It is one of my favorites. So, i thought to give you the recipe of making Mung beans milk rice. 

There are many types of rice such as Kekulu rice, Samba rice, Basmati rice,  Nadu rice etc.  When making Milk rice you should pick Kekulu rice. It doesn't matter if it is  Brown kekulu or White kekulu. There is a local wild rice known as Suwadal rice which is also suitable for making Milk rice, it gives a pleasant aroma to your rice but it is too expensive. 1 Kg of Suwadal rice is about Rs.250 - 300/=.  Other rice varieties are not suitable to make milk rice.  

Ingredients : 

• 1 cup of Kekulu rice (brown or white as your preference) or Suwadal rice 

• ½ cup of mung beans 

• 1 ½ cup of coconut milk 

• Sesame seeds 

• Salt as per your taste 

Method : 

• Soak the Mung beans in water overnight. Then boil the mung beans. Leave it aside. 

• Roast the sesame seeds in a pan and leave it aside too. 

• Wash and clean the rice well before cooking. 

• Place the washed & cleaned rice in the rice cooker bowl and add water into it until water comes to the second link of the middle finger.  (that’s how to measure the water level to cook rice) some people boil soaked mung beans and rice together. If you like you can do so. 

• Mix salt with coconut milk. When the rice cooker turns to “warm mode” from “cook mode” pour the coconut milk into the cooked rice and then add boiled mung beans. Mix it well. 

• Switch the rice cooker into the “cook mode” again.    

• Let it cook until the coconut milk is done. 

• Finally add the roasted sesame seeds into the mung rice and mix them well.  

To eat milk rice we prepare onion and red chilli mixture. It is called “Lunu - Miris Katta Sambolaya”. It is very hot. Some people eat milk rice with “Seeni sambolaya” which is also made with fried onions.  Fish ambul thiyal is a traditional recipe for cooking fish. It is also ideal to eat with milk rice. 

I give the recipe to make Lunu - miris Katta sambolaya here. 

Ingredients : 

• One big onion or 6 red onions 

• 1 ½  tablespoons of  red chilli pieces 

• 1 tablespoons of Maldive fish pieces 

• Salt as per your taste 

• One green chili pod 

• Some curry leaves 

• Small amount of tamarind or tomato 

• Lime 

Method : 

Place all the ingredients into a mortar except lime and ground them together with the pestle until all of them become soft and mix well. Take the mixture out of the mortar into a bowl and add lime as per your taste.