Throw yourself a (non-farty) taco party!
Jump to RecipeSummer is finally, properly HERE! I’ve had a busy week pulling together some new recipes meant to help you keep your cool all season long. Recipes to help you chill, inside and out…AND, I’ve been eating these Spiced Mung Bean Tacos on repeat to keep myself calm, collected + cool as a cucumber in the crazy process.
In these warmest months, eating lunch isn’t just about preventing starvation; it’s also the best thing we can do to keep the body cool through the day and night AND to keep bloating and gas at bay.
When we eat large meals late in the day or let our hunger get too high, we run the risk of some digestive discomfort. Late meals prevent our bodies from lowering their core temperature (because we’re digesting!) and allowing our hunger to get too high means that digestion starts to sort of freak out, increasing in acid and urgency, which can lead to indigestion, acid reflux, bloating, and more. Our digestive fire is the hottest and most powerful in the middle of the day, so it’s wise to piggyback on this power and enjoy our most substantial meal at this time. If visions of long, luxurious lunches in tiny European towns come to mind, then me too – only this spread unfolded in my backyard this week as many times as I could make it happen (which was quite a few,) and I was sleeping better, feeling more energetic and more balanced and at ease as a result. (Dips in the river and mid-afternoon popsicles helped too.)
These tacos have another superpower – the secret is in the spices that spike the mung beans. Mung beans are similar to lentils, rather bland on their own. But their easy digestibility is a marvelous backdrop for just about any spices that you can dream up and it’s the spices that are helping your digestion stay calm. Yep – spices can and DO do that! Coriander, fennel, and fenugreek all are soothing to digestion, while ginger and cumin help keep the digestive fire high without burning things up. When the heat from outside the body ramps up, it has a tendency to increase the heat within the body, resulting in bloating, gas, indigestion, and discomfort (not much fun if you’re spending time in spandex or a swimsuit these days!) Eat your spices and stave away the farts!
There’s one more way that these tacos will help you to avoid the farts that other bean and legume meals may make. I suggest that you soak the beans, not only because this helps them cook faster but because this process makes the nutrients in the mung bioavailable (ie: available for us to benefit from) AND, it soaks away the phytic acid that the beans are naturally coated in. Phytic acid is a biotoxin present on all beans, legumes, pulses, nuts, and seeds – all ingredients that contain the power to sprout new life. This biotoxin is meant to deter predators from consuming these tiny powerhouses before they can do their jobs of sprouting new life and it causes the predators (in this case, us) to fart. These tiny sproutables presume that if digestive discomfort were to befall the predator, they would stop eating but Ohno – we just keep going. UNTIL your friendly chef tells you that you have been making beans all wrong. Don’t forget to soak. Your friends and partners (and your digestive system) will thank you deeply.
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