What should mung beans not be eaten with? Quick ways to cook them soft and how to grow them

Mung beans are a common household staple for beating the heat. Whether it is mung bean soup, mung bean porridge or mung bean cake, they suit young and old alike. The seeds and stems are widely eaten. The heat-clearing effect of mung beans lies in the skin, while the detoxifying effect lies in the flesh. So what should mung beans not be eaten with? How do you quickly cook mung beans soft? And what are the methods for growing mung beans?

I. What should mung beans not be eaten with?

1. Mung beans + Torreya nuts: Torreya is warm in nature, and eating too much can easily cause internal heat, while mung beans clear heat. Logically the two complement each other, but they also counteract each other. Eating mung beans together with Torreya can easily cause poisoning if eaten to excess, and can even lead to death.

2. Mung beans + tomatoes: Tomatoes are rich in vitamins, and mung beans also contain a variety of vitamins. Eaten separately, neither poses any problem, but if tomatoes and mung beans are eaten together, they can sap your vitality, so be careful about this.

3. Mung beans + carp: Carp soup is very nutritious, and braised carp is tasty too, but mung beans and carp must never be eaten together, otherwise they will stir up wind and trigger illness.

4. Mung beans + dog meat: Dog meat is especially warming and nourishing when eaten in winter, since dog meat is warm in nature. But dog meat is not suitable to eat with mung beans, otherwise it will cause discomfort such as stomach bloating and pain, and even vomiting and poisoning.

II. Methods for quickly cooking mung beans soft

1. Mung beans cook soft more easily after freezing

To cook mung beans soft quickly, you can first rinse them clean, soak them in clean water for ten minutes, then take them out, drain off the water and put the mung beans in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator until they freeze into an ice block. Because the mung beans absorb some water during soaking, cracks will appear on their skins during freezing, so when you then put them directly into the pot to cook, they will quickly become soft.

2. Mung beans cook soft easily if water is added in stages

When cooking mung beans normally, you can also use the method of adding water in stages. At the start, add a small amount of clean water; after the pot comes to a boil, add another small amount of clean water, and repeat this, so the mung beans can be cooked until soft and mushy in a short time. This is because with this method the mung beans in the pot are constantly stimulated by cold and hot water, which makes their skins crack and soften quickly.

3. Mung beans cook soft easily if soaked in boiling water first

Normally, after washing the mung beans, put them in a thermos, then pour in boiling water, cover the lid and leave for about 20 minutes, then pour them out into a pot and cook over heat. As soon as the pot comes to a boil, after another three or four minutes the mung beans in the pot will cook soft, with a soft and glutinous texture.

4. Mung beans cook soft easily if stir-fried first

To make mung beans cook soft quickly, you can put them in a wok and stir-fry them slowly for 4 to 5 minutes. At this point be careful not to scorch the mung beans, otherwise the cooked mung bean soup will have a burnt taste, which will affect the flavor of the soup and also noticeably reduce its nutritional value.

III. Methods for growing mung beans

1. Choosing the site and intercropping: Mung beans are extremely adaptable and can grow in ordinary sandy soil, thin hillside land, black soil and clay soil. They are often intercropped with crops such as corn, sorghum, cotton, sweet potato, sesame and millet, and can be planted on field ridges and in gaps between plots, but continuous cropping is avoided.

2. Deep ploughing and land preparation: Before sowing mung beans, plough deeply and harrow finely, prepare the land carefully, harrow flat the clods of soil, make the soil loose, store water and preserve moisture, and prevent the soil from hardening, so that the top is loose and the bottom is firm, which helps with seedling emergence and allows crop rotation.

3. Reasonable close planting: The planting density of mung beans should be determined by variety characteristics and soil fertility. Generally, the principle is: early-maturing varieties dense, late-maturing varieties sparse; upright types dense, semi-vining types sparse, vining types even sparser; fertile land suitable for sparse planting, poor land suitable for dense planting; early planting sparse, late planting dense.

4. Cultivation and weeding: After the first compound leaf of the mung bean unfolds, do the first shallow hoeing together with thinning the seedlings. After the second compound leaf unfolds, start fixing the seedlings and do the second cultivation. At the branching stage, do the third deep cultivation and earth up around the roots. Cultivation should continue until the rows close over.

5. Drainage and irrigation: Mung bean seedlings need less water, and the flowering and podding stage is the peak period of water demand. At this time, if there is drought, irrigate promptly, but they are also afraid of waterlogging and flooding. If there is too much moisture at the seedling stage, it will cause root rot and dead seedlings, while waterlogging later will cause poor plant growth and lower yields.

6. Reasonable fertilization: The roots of mung beans have nitrogen-fixing ability, so in practice they are often not fertilized, but to increase mung bean yields on medium- and low-yield plots, fertilizer should be added. Generally, apply about 10 kg per mu of seed fertilizer diammonium phosphate or a nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compound fertilizer.

7. Timely harvesting: Mung beans should be harvested as they ripen according to the situation, but large-scale planting often requires a single harvest. The sign for timely harvest is when 2/3 of the pods turn brown-black, but under high temperature conditions the mature pods crack easily, so harvesting should be done in the morning before the dew has dried or in the evening.