There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about probiotic and prebiotic foods and the immense benefits they offer not just to our physical but also to our emotional health. Your intestines, like the rest of your body, are teeming with bacteria, trillions of them, helping you digest what you eat. Scientists have discovered that so powerful is the effect of your gut microbiome, as this ecosystem is called, on your overall health, that it can affect how you feel, how you look, and even how you think. The good news is, we can influence our gut microbiomes to a healthier state by eating less processed foods and more probiotic foods like tempeh, miso, kimchi and sauerkraut– foods that are already popular with vegans. To help those bacteria thrive, you also need to eat prebiotic foods – foods that are rich in a certain kind of fiber – like bananas, greens, leeks, onions, garlic, asparagus, and legumes. The traditional Indian vegetarian diet tends to be very gut-friendly. Dosa and idli, for instance, are made with fermented batter teeming with healthy bacteria, as are other traditional favorites like dhokla and kanji. Indian pickles, like lime pickle and carrot pickle, are getting a boost as a great source of probiotic bacteria (I have a batch of lime pickle fermenting on the window sill right now). And sprouts, long an integral part of the Indian kitchen, rank high for their prebiotic potential like all legumes. Even better, they release nutrients within the legume, making it easier for the body – and for that bacteria – to digest and assimilate them. I love cooking with sprouts, and I’ve shared with you a number of sprouted bean recipes in the past, including Maharashtrian usal, the popular street food misal, this simple Mung Bean Salad, Sprouted Mung Dosa, and even a Sprouted Bean Burger. Today’s recipe is an old favorite that I often make for a nourishing dinner. Check to get new recipe updates by email.
For this sprouts curry I used matki or moth beans, which could be unfamiliar to those outside India. They are easily available online or at Indian groceries. They look like tiny brown mung beans, and have a rather nutty, delicious flavor that lends itself perfectly to lightly spiced curries like this one. You could use mung beans or really any old bean, if you’d rather, but if you use chickpeas or any of the larger beans, you will have to cook them first before adding them to the recipe. This is a curry that’ll no doubt make your gut happy: there are onions and garlic and, of course, the beans here, providing you with plenty of fiber for the good bacteria. Eat this with basmati rice or roti and Indian pickle for a meal that’ll leave you – and your belly – happier and healthier.
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