A moonglet is an easy Indian style vegan omelet made with mung or moong lentils that you can easily whip up in about the time it might take you to crack an egg and whisk it up. But it's tastier, healthier, and you can pack it with all the veggies your heart desires. Also gluten-free, soy-free and nut-free.
Were you to order a moonglet, a vegan moong bean omelet, from one of India's street food vendors, they'd whip up an extraordinarily healthy slurry of mung beans and spices, then add half a stick of butter to a pan, pour the mung in, and fry it all up into a food so delicious, with crispy edges and a puff, airy texture, that you'd lick your fingers to stubs.
But one of the great things about cooking street food at home is, you can cut out the stuff you don't want and, with some ingenuity, still keep things as tasty as possible.
Today, I want to share with you my mung bean omelet recipe, which is not just tasty, not just healthy, but amazingly kid friendly as well.
Jay loves this moonglet so much, he'll often request it for breakfast. And I never have to snap, "I'm too busy, get yourself some cereal!" because it takes all of 10 minutes to make.
Also this way I can put lots of colorful, healthy veggies into his tum.
But don't just eat it for breakfast. It makes a great lunch or quick dinner as well.
This recipe is pretty much a blank canvas you can paint on with your own imagination. The base, of mung beans or moong lentils, is your egg mixture and you add ingredients to it based on your taste and preference.
That said, my recipe--the combination of ingredients I add here--is especially delicious and I've got a few tips and tricks to make sure this moonglet turns out as delicious as can be. So be sure to try it this way at least once.
You will need to do a small step of prep work for this recipe, which is soaking the mung lentils for at least half an hour. Longer is fine, you can do the soaking the night before you plan to cook. Soaking the lentils help blend them into a smoother mixture.
I like crispy edges on my moonglets, so I add a dash of brown rice to the lentils as they soak. The rice gives a nice crunch and adds more healthfulness. You don't need the rice, but I'd strongly recommend it.
I add a few ingredients to the blender when I whip up the moonglet batter--ginger, garlic and green chili peppers. You can add turmeric, although I don't much care for it in here.
A dash of baking soda gives the omelets a lovely, puffy and light texture, but if you don't want to use it, leave it out by all means.
You can add all sorts of veggies to the moonglet. I like bell peppers, onions, spring onions, shredded carrots, zucchini, shredded spinach, and herbs like cilantro and mint. Anything that doesn't take a ton of time to cook would work.
Try and use a cast iron skillet for this if possible, although a nonstick skillet works too. A cast iron skillet just gives those great, crispy edges that kids go gaga for.
You can eat it by itself, no need for anything on the side, although I'll admit I sometimes like eating my mung bean omelet with a green chutney. Jay loves it with hot sauce. Ketchup works perfectly fine too.
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Moonglet, a Mung Bean Omelet
Vegan | Soy-Free | Nut-Free | Gluten-Free
Moonglet, a vegan mung bean omelet
Equipment
- Blender
- Griddle
Ingredients
- 1 cup mung lentils (use the split lentils without skin on. Soak for at least half an hour or as long as overnight.)
- 2 tbsp brown rice (optional. White rice works too. Soak the rice with the dal)
- 1 tsp garlic (crushed or minced)
- 1 tsp ginger (minced)
- 2 green chili peppers (like jalapeno or serrano. Adjust up or down based on your tolerance for heat)
- ½ tsp baking soda (optional)
- 1 cup mixed veggies (like minced onions, bell peppers, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms or shredded spinach. Tomato's great too.)
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Drain the lentils and rice, if using, then place them in the blender with the ginger, garlic, chili peppers, baking soda, if using, and salt to taste. Add water to blend into a smooth batter that's slightly runnier than a pancake batter would be but thicker than a crepe batter.
- Place the griddle on medium high heat and brush on or spray on enough oil to coat the bottom. I use a six-inch cast iron griddle which gives me perfectly sized moonglets, but you can make these any size you want.
- Pour in the batter to make a circle. If you use a six-inch pan, you can pick the griddle up carefully by the handle, using a mitt if you're using a cast iron pan, and swirl the batter around to ensure it spreads evenly (like you'd do for a crepe).
- Sprinkle on any veggies you want. I used onions, bell peppers and scallions this time.
- Let the moonglet cook until you can see the sides are dry and golden, about 2-3 minutes. Flip over and cook a couple more minutes. Serve hot.
Nutrition
Hi, Vaishali - I've been a subscriber because I love Indian food, although I'm not vegan (or even vegetarian!). However, I recently developed an allergy to eggs, which required HUGE changes to my diet! One of the hardest things to figure out was a quick, easy replacement for the egg tacos I ate pretty much every day for breakfast. I found this recipe and it solved my problem. I've made it as written and it was amazing, but I've also left out the Indian seasonings and topped it with cheese and salsa, or mixed in chopped kimchee to make a Korean-style kimchee pancake. It's been a life-saver during a time when I had to make some difficult adjustments. Thank you for sharing it!
Hi Devon, I am so thrilled to hear this. What a great idea to use other toppings...I love it!
We've been making this for several months now, and feel that we've gotten very good at it, though to be fair, it was good from the start. It's so much fun, and since we've smoothed out our own technique, it's been quick enough to make on a work day breakfast morning. So, for one thing, THANK YOU!
Both of us (the other half loves to cook, too, and he's in charge of the moonglet in the skillet) began to wonder this very morning if the recipe batter, as it stands, could be used to make these as "breakfast muffins" or do you feel it would need a tweak in its chemistry? We're going to eventually try to make it work at a later time, but we're curious if you've tried that yourself?
Love your site... such a plethora of options and fabulous tastes, and above all, very well thought out techniques.
Hi LJ, that’s so great to hear! The recipe would work great as is for muffins!
This is a real keeper. My first pour stuck to the skillet, so I had to add oil to the pan. But the flavor was great. This will be a go to recipe.
I just made them. Delicious! I used a nonstick griddle and they had just enough crispness to them.
So happy to hear!
Hi Vaishali!
How much water should I add? It seems I made them too thick. I don't cook a lot of pancakes or crepes.
Also, how much batter do you pour into the pan.
They tasted good and came out pretty, but I think I can improve on them next time.
And one more--what do you serve with them--sauce or chutney? Do you have a recipe you can point me to?
Thanks!
I meant pretty well. Yours are much prettier!
Hi Noelle, you can make the consistency about that of a pancake batter, but if you find that too thick add more water by all means--they will hold together. Just don't make them too crepey.
These will go really great with a tomato chutney or onion chutney. Recipe links below: 🙂
https://holycowvegan.net/rich-and-tangy-tomato-chutney/
https://holycowvegan.net/onion-chutney/
Any advice for preventing sticking to the pan?
Use a nonstick pan or a well-seasoned cast iron pan. And don't do this with no fat--use at least enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan thoroughly. Wait until browned and the sides start releasing from the pan. These shouldn't stick unless you try to flip them too early, before the underside has browned.
How much water is used for this recipe?
Just made these for dinner. Very tasty, reminded me of the egg omelets that I used to eat, but Vegan! High protein, good flavour, quick and easy.
I didnt soak the brown rice first because the recipe didn't say so, but your blog did, so I soaked the rice with the dal while I was chopping the aromatics. I had issues with finding the right pan temperature also. Medium high burned them slightly, but lowering it made them stick to the pan. All in all delicious and I will add them to my regular repertoire! Hubby says "mmmm!"
So happy you enjoyed them! Thanks for pointing out the detail on the rice--soaking them beforehand is preferred, so I'll clarify in the recipe.
Thank you for the Wonderful recipe! Tried it this weekend, we both LOVE it! You are now officially my go to for new vegan recipes! YaY!!!
I am not having any success finding this type of lentils. I can find the mung beans (whole, with skins on), or split peas - yellow. Or red lentils, green lentils, even black lentils. Is this a specialty item? I have looked in my usual grocery store as well as an Asian market...help?
You can use the skin-on beans--soak them for a bit longer, though, overnight would be great.
Can't wait to try this. I have had mung bean omelets before and they are delicious. I'd like to make this now, but I only have about a half cup left of the split mung beans. Can I mix them with 1/2 cup yellow lentils?
Yes, that should be fine. You may need to soak a little longer if they're pigeon pea lentils.
I use moong lentils with skin and mix some chana lentils. They taste great as well along with vegetables.
Thank you for this enticing recipe? Can I get away without the oil?
Hi Lester, yes, absolutely, if you make it in a nonstick skillet, but you won't get any crispness. Otherwise it would be great without oil.
This looks fascinating! I don’t have any Mung bean lentils on hand. Do you think it worth trying with red lentils or any other type? If I go ahead with Red lentils they might not need to be soaked as long, since they fall apart easily and cook so fast. I don’t know how Mung bean lentils compare. Any thoughts on that? It’s a great concept; I’m very eager to give it a try.
Thank you so much.
Susan Amrita
Hi Susan, red lentils should be fine, although it'll taste different, of course.
Are there other spices I could add to it to make it spicier?
Yes, absolutely. Like I said this is pretty much a blank canvas and you can add all the herbs and spices and veggies you want. Turmeric and/or curry powder would be awesome here. You can also add more cayenne.
What's the difference between mung beans and mung lentils?
Beans are whole and lentils are the split version. You can use either in this recipe, so long as they don't have the skin on.
This looks great! To clarify: the rice is uncooked, correct?
Yes, uncooked!
The mung beans are also uncooked?
Yes