The mung bean (Vigna radiata) is the small, round, olive-green seed of a slender warm-season legume long grown across India, China and South-East Asia and known by a crowd of names — moong, green gram, golden gram, mung. It is one of the most versatile pulses in the kitchen: cooked whole into porridge and dal, split and skinned as the pale-yellow moong dal that breaks down fast into a soft purée, milled to a starch that sets into clear cellophane noodles and the steamed-and-fried batter of dosa-like pancakes, and — most familiar in the West — germinated into the crunchy bean sprout. The seed itself is mild, faintly sweet and earthy with a fresh green note, a quiet, adaptable savour that takes on the spices and aromatics around it.