Mung Bean Breakfast Soup
tender mung beans in hot creamy coconut milk
Eating oatmeal for breakfast gives me the shakes, the jitters, the sweats, the starry eyes, and the 11 o’clock “I’ve gotta eat something or I’ll die!” kind of feeling. Same with amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa, and millet, oh especially millet. I do not enjoy the hormonal roller coaster ride my sympathetic nervous system gives me after I eat a hot grain for breakfast. This little morning catecholamine experience is also known as hypoglycemia — that after-breakfast-empty-stomach-jitter-wooziness.
I loved eating gluten-free grains for breakfast, all hot and milky, but I had to say goodbye. The hypoglycemic episode that resulted was no longer worth it. I’ve tried so hard to keep them in with all kinds of magical blood sugar tricks, but it hasn’t worked. What else could I eat that would give me that hot, milky, mushy, sweet breakfast food I craved?
Mung Bean Breakfast Soup!
Had I not discovered mung bean breakfast soup, I don’t know what I would have done. It is my five star replacement for a hot grain breakfast. The mung beans cook up soft like a grain, with a mild flavor, and swim in a rich coconut milk base. I love to top it with raw cacao nibs and fresh strawberries. The photo shows just about as much strawberries as my blood sugar can handle in the morning. The cacao nibs, they pop with crunch and flavor! You can also try topping it with blueberries or even avocado. In a hurry, I just eat straight-up mung bean soup with stevia.
Mung bean breakfast soup offers fiber and protein for the first meal of the day. It is 100% allergy friendly. Unless, you are allergic to mung beans. But I doubt that. This breakfast would also be an excellent option for the (hated) elimination diet. A lot of people have no idea what to eat for breakfast if they are grain-free, soy-free, and vegan. Eat this!
My three year old daughter gobbles up this breakfast soup. I’ve also pureed it with a little bit of banana for my 9 month old baby. She especially loves this soup when she can feed herself the mung beans while mastering her pincer grasp, one mung bean at a time.
The recipe is easy and quick, but there is an annoying catch — you should soak the mung beans overnight. It’s ok though, just leave them out on the counter. The ingredients are basic: mung beans, water, coconut milk, and stevia to taste. The recipe below gives me breakfast for about 3-4 days (I sometimes have seconds).
This is the best vegan, grain-free, allergy friendly, blood-sugar-balanced, hot breakfast. Do I even need to write that it’s healthy?
Mung Bean Breakfast Soup
Adapted from theKitchnIngredients
- 1 heaping cup of mung beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
- 5 cups of filtered water
- 1 can full fat, organic coconut milk
- stevia to taste
- topping options: cacao nibs, strawberries, blueberries, or avocado
Makes about 5 breakfast bowls
- Drain mung beans & place in a medium sized stainless steel or glass sauce pan.
- Add 5 cups of filtered water.
- Bring to a vigorous boil.
- Turn heat down and simmer on low for about 30 minutes.
- Turn off heat and add coconut milk. Stir.
- Let sit on the warm burner for about 10 minutes.
- Serve hot.
- Add stevia and toppings to individual breakfast bowls.
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Lori
June 11th, 2012 at 8:44 am
I wonder if the beans could be soaked all day and then cooked in a crock pot all night?
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Dr. Archer
June 18th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
Lori, that is certainly a great idea! Especially for those who do not have an hour in the morning to brew a soup!
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lisa wellington
June 18th, 2012 at 7:59 pm
I’m actually going to try this… and I don’t even need to! I love my hot steel cut oats, but I’m going to give this a try for fun. I like the idea of nibs on top. I do that with my oats too.
Thanks Archer.
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Dr. Archer
June 18th, 2012 at 8:31 pm
Your welcome Lisa! You know, when I see you or think of you, I always seem to associate fun with you! I think its fun that you want to try this for fun! I hope you like it. I think you will. :)
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Erin
June 29th, 2012 at 7:07 am
I love your photos! And the soup sounds worth a try, too! Thanks!
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Dr. Archer
June 29th, 2012 at 7:25 am
Hi Erin!
Thanks so much. That means a lot coming from you — a professional photographer!
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Sacramentoknits
July 7th, 2012 at 10:57 pm
This sounds delicious and satisfying. I can’t wait to try it. (We just came back from Japan where we enjoyed interesting vegan soups for breakfast. Otherwise i might not have been looking and found your site.) Plus I have fibromyalgia and need to up my protien intake to stave off the blood sugar roller coaster ride. I have given up eating alot of suger and that ahs really helped. No stevia for me though. I have decided it gives me “lady problems.” Like sudden and too much bleeding. Any way thanks for the nifty recipe.
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Dr. Archer
July 8th, 2012 at 9:24 am
Hi Sacramentoknits! Thanks so much for stopping by and also for your comment. I hope you come back! Most of the recipes I post are blood sugar friendly. I’m sorry to hear that you have fibromyalgia. I have never heard of such a reaction to stevia!
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Sacramentoknits
July 8th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Hi Archer. :) I have read that one of the traditional uses of stevia was to prevent pregnancy, affecting both men and women. This probably requires a fairly high and perhaps constant dose in most people. Most herbs, and other foods in fact, are good for humans in reasonable amounts and somewhat toxic in large or too-frequent amounts. One of the hallmarks of fibromyalgia is that a person is hypersensitive to substances. And stevia seems to be one of those substances for me. So that’s my two cents worth. I think stevia is probably fine for most people. I was really excited to learn about it and even grew a plant and dried some leaves. :) I still think stevia is pretty cool actually.
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Sacramentoknits
July 8th, 2012 at 11:32 am
Oh and thank you for your sympathies regarding my fibromyalgia. I am actually doing well right now compared to a couple of years ago. I focus on what I can do and eat and how lucky I am instead of what I can’t or don’t. And it sounds like you do too! :)
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Dr. Archer
July 8th, 2012 at 2:36 pm
Yes, I do too! Tomorrow’s post will be along those lines. I am blessed to know that you are doing well!
I did not know about the traditional uses for stevia. That’s very interesting! I’ll have to look that up. Do you remember where you read it? Very cool that you grew your own plant! Have you tried different brands or was the one you tried organic?
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Sacramentoknits
July 9th, 2012 at 9:32 am
Morning Archer. Try these links:
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-682-STEVIA.aspx?activeIngredientId=682&activeIngredientName=STEVIA
http://www.momlogic.com/2010/02/stevia_the_wonder_herb_fertility_ttc.php
In my case I purchased some stevia packets and after one use got some weird cramping that reminded me of last year when I was having bleeding problems (involving a trip to ER and later an unpleasant scraping type procedure.) That is when I remembered that I was also munching fresh and dried stevia leaves from my plant during that time. I had run out (my plant died over the winter) and finally got around to buying the packets. Coincidence? Maybe. But it is unpleasant (and even scary) enough that I am not even going to risk trying the stevia again.
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Dr. Archer
July 15th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
Hi Again Sacramentoknits!
I was wondering if it was stevia packets that you tried. A lot of the stevia packets available are cut with erythritol, which can wreck total havoc on the GI system — causing diarrhea and cramping. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, the info, and also your experience!
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Sacramentoknits
July 15th, 2012 at 11:15 pm
Hello Archer. Actually when I was having the problem the first time I had grown the plant myself. No chemicals, no pesticides.
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Dr. Archer
July 16th, 2012 at 7:32 am
Oh ok! Wow!
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Kai
March 9th, 2013 at 7:29 pm
Thanks for the awesome recipe – my 10 month old loved it – she even ate seconds. We can’t use bananas because she reacts to them, but we pureed it with raspberries, blueberries & applesauce. The whole family ate it that way!
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Bridgette
July 31st, 2013 at 11:05 am
Just wanted to thank you for this particular recipe — I’m on an elimination diet and have been a lifelong oatmeal eater…this satisfies me perfectly! Maybe even better — the swelling I’ve been experiencing in my stomach and GI system has gone down immensely since I began the diet 4 days ago. This breakfast will be in regular rotation, come what may! By the way: I used Truroots Organics sprouted mung beans, so it cooked up in less than 15 minutes, start to finish. Tastes great hot or cold. Awesome!!!
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Dr. Archer
July 31st, 2013 at 7:58 pm
Hi Bridgette!
Thanks so much for your lovely comment. This is one of my favs and it’s true, it is elimination diet friendly! I’m hoping to post more recipes like this once my board exams are done. It definitely hit the spot for me on those mornings I was craving a bowl of oatmeal.
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Susan
January 10th, 2014 at 4:03 am
Hi Archer,
just made your soup for the first day, and I love it. I also added some chopped raw ginger root, walnuts and fresh black currents, pineapple, banana, orange and a dried apricot and prune. Usually I have a breakfast of porridge with fruit and yoghurt, which I love too, but after 2hours, I’m getting dizzy of hunger, even though my portion is larger than recommended and more wouldn’t fit in my stomach anyway. Thanks so much for your recipe. Hope my addition of fruit and nut isn’t throwing this breakfast out of balance?
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cassia
July 9th, 2015 at 12:55 am
Wonderful idea for breakfast! I’m glad that I am not the only one being hungry after few hours post porridge… Is it ok to eat it every morning?
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Dr. Archer Atkins
July 11th, 2015 at 11:34 pm
Hi Cassia!
It’s fine to eat it every morning for breakfast, unless you have diabetes (should add more protein to the meal if you have diabetes). However, it’s a good idea to rotate your diet and not eat the same foods everyday.
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Jeanne
January 25th, 2016 at 2:30 pm
This sounds nice as an extra for my kichari diet. Can I reheat this meal in the morning?
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Dr. Archer Atkins
January 25th, 2016 at 3:08 pm
Hi Jeanne,
Yes, it’s totally reheatable!
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