Mung bean stew or monggo guisado is one of my husband's favorite dishes - the one that takes him back to his childhood in Manila. So, I had to get this right. Hahaha.
I wanted to re-create it using the Instant Pot. At first, I was cooking just the mung beans in the Instant Pot and adding the cooked mung beans to the rest of the ingredients in a different pot. Then, I thought, why not just cook the entire dish in the Instant Pot? One less pot to wash, right? So here it is, one-pot mung bean stew or monggo guisado.
Ingredients
This dish is typically made with some pork. I have used pork belly or pork shoulder roast, cut into ½ inch pieces. Ground pork also works too. Try to get pastured pork if you can. See my food philosophy here.
You can also use shrimp instead if you prefer. Or make it a vegan dish and omit the pork or shrimp entirely.
Rinse the mung beans before using them.
Add some greens too. Try spinach, swiss chard or even moringa or malunggay leaves.
Moringa is known as a superfood usually consumed in powder form, but did you know that the actual leaves are eaten and added to dishes as well? I get a frozen pack of malunggay from the Asian store, the package also says horseradish leaves.
If you can't find malunggay or moringa leaves, use spinach instead. But add spinach at the end, after cooking the stew.
In the Instant Pot
I'm a huge fan of the Instant Pot. It just makes cooking so much easier, allowing me to use cheaper, tougher cuts of meat that come out tender after pressure cooking.
In Sauté mode, add coconut oil. Add the garlic and onions and sauté until the onions are translucent and fragrant.
Add the pork and sauté until browned. If it gets too hot, turn Sauté mode on/off intermittently.
Next add the mung beans, water, malunggay or moringa leaves. I just cut the malunggay or moringa leaves pack open and dump all the contents in the pot. If you're using spinach, add at the end.
Set the Instant Pot to Bean/Chili (or manual mode) for 10 minutes.
When it's done, let the pressure release naturally. Open up the pot and add salt. Add the spinach now, if using.
Total cook time would be about 1 hour = sauté time + time to build pressure + cook time at pressure + time to release pressure.
There you have it - Instant Pot mung bean stew or monggo guisado. My husband liked it, yay! 🙂
Tried this recipe? Please leave a rating or comment below!
Check out my other Instant Pot recipes too:
- Instant Pot Bone Broth
- Instant Pot Bulalo or Beef Bone Marrow Stew
- Instant Pot Chili
- Instant Pot Pork Adobo
Instant Pot Mung Bean Stew or Monggo Guisado
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ½ onion diced
- ½ lb pork (ground pork, diced pork belly or pork roast)
- 1 cup mung beans rinsed
- 3 cups water
- 1 pack malunggay or moringa leaves (or 2 cups spinach)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to Sauté mode and melt the coconut oil.
- Add garlic and onions, sauté until onions are translucent and fragrant.
- Add pork, sauté until lightly brown.
- Turn off Sauté mode.
- Add mung beans, water, and malunggay or moringa leaves. (If using spinach, add leaves at the end.)
- Cover and set to Bean/Chili (or manual) for 10 minutes. When done, let the pressure release naturally.
- Add salt (and spinach if using, then allow spinach to wilt).
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- You may substitute shrimp instead of pork, or omit entirely.
- If using shrimp, add at the end, after releasing pressure.
- You may use swiss chard or spinach, instead of moringa or malunggay leaves. Or use a combination of greens.
- Total cook time = sauté time + time to build pressure + cook time at pressure + time to release pressure.
Jayvee
Hi Melissa, for this dish, can I use boneless chicken thighs instead? Thank you
Melissa Torio
Hi Jayvee, I don't see why not, you can try this with boneless chicken thighs instead. Do let me know how it goes!
Leo
We grow horseradish, and could never find a good use for the leaves. Then I had Monggo Guisado in a Filipino restaurant, and new I had a winner. This recipe was a great start. I used lard instead of coconut oil, trippled the garlic, used dark meat chicken, and added crushed garlic after the onions were translucent. It came out great!
Melissa Torio
Sounds delicious! How awesome that you grow horseradish! You can use the leaves in another Filipino dish called chicken tinola.
Mechel
Thank you so much for this recipe. I am on a plant based/vegan diet and made this recipe with vegan hotdogs in place of pork. It was AMAZING!!! I have been craving this for a while but didn’t know how to make it. Your recipe was simple and easy and very YUMMY 😋 Thanks again
Melissa Torio
I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe, Mechel!
Del
This is part of our dinner rotation now. Especially for those cold days and when I’m too tired after work. The comfort and flavor seems like you slaved for hours! I’ve substituted the malunggay with spinach or kale when I don’t have any. And also I’ve done shrimp that I only add at the end (instead of pork). This dish pairs nicely with smoked fish that I prep in the air fryer. Such an easy meal, Thanks again for this recipe!
Melissa Torio
Hi Del, I'm so happy you enjoyed this recipe! We just had it with smoked fish this week too! 🙂
Ann
hi Issa!
Thanks for this! Im new to instapot and the only thing ive been cooking is munggo. Pls keep it coming!!! Thanks Take Care
Melissa Torio
Hi Ann! Enjoy your Instant Pot and monggo! 🙂 Any requests for new Instant Pot recipes?
Ann
I saw your other recipes and am excited to try them esp the adobo... if you have any one pot meal recipes that you can share it would be awesome! esp ones with vegetables would be great =)
Kelly McClacherty
Quick, easy and delicious!
Rob
Very straightforward and quick recipe that is a great way to cook mung beans into a hearty, flavorful stew. We don’t eat animals so we left out the pork and substituted a crumbled veggie burger at the end, and added a vegetable bullion to the water before cooking. Spinach worked well as the green.
Melissa Torio
Glad you enjoyed this recipe, Rob!
Shellby
Hi! I'm very excited to try this as I love mungo and just bought an instant pot. My question is if I use 1.5 cups of beans, how much water should I use? Thanks so much in advance
Melissa Torio
Try 4.5 cups of water for 1.5 cups of beans. Sometimes I end up adding more water after cooking as needed.
An
i'm so excited to try this! this is one of the few dishes my dad cooked for us growing up. i haven't attempted to make it since becoming an adult & leaving home 23 years ago! it's time i let my 2 kids try this. if using the frozen malunggay leaves, do you put it in the instant pot frozen or would i have to thaw it out first?
Melissa Torio
You can do either way. Sometimes I just take out the frozen malunggay leaves from the pack and dump it all in the Instant Pot. If you'd like to wash the leaves first, then thaw, strain and wash. I hope this helps. Enjoy!
Andie
Hi there! I want to add coconut milk, but when do I put it? Thank you!
Melissa Torio
I haven't tried this recipe with coconut milk yet. You can probably add the coconut milk along with all the other ingredients. Let me know how it turns out!
Maria
Thanks for posting. How would the cooking time differ if doubling the serving size ?
Melissa Torio
Hi Maria, the cooking time would still be the same even when doubling the serving size.
Tracy
Really excited to try this. It goes perfectly for my Ayurvedic vata imbalances. I’m trying to do more one pot meals. I’m subscribing
Namaste
Melissa Torio
Hope you enjoy this recipe!
Jay Bautista
Thank you for the recipe. Added this to our meal rotation.
Melissa Torio
So happy to hear that! Enjoy!
Becky M
I made it yesterday and it was so easy I thought maybe I missed something. When it was fine, it was perfect. Since I'm vegetarian, I used Morningstar "bacon" to substitute for the pork. I never soaked (but rinsed) the beans, used the entire medium sized onion, and I used organic spinach in the clam shell container. It was so good, that even though I intended to have it for lunch (I cooked it in the am), I had 2 bowls of it right away. It was so flavorful that I couldn't believe the only added seasoning was salt!
Thanks for such an easy and tasty meal!
Becky M
Correction "when it was *done*..."
Melissa Torio
So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Becky! 🙂
Eden Borgonia Catalla
This is my tried and tested recipe for Friday lunch - yummy and easy!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Melissa Torio
So happy to hear that!
Brandon
If using malunggay leaf, is it at the same ratio (2 cups) as spinach? Because we get fresh malunggay here, so I don't know how much a "pack" is and I don't want to over/under season with the fresh leaves.
Melissa Torio
You're so lucky to get fresh malunggay! I would put 1-2 cups of fresh malunggay leaves, only because I like more greens in this dish. I suggest to start with 1 cup, then take note for next time if you'd like more malunggay or not.
Alison
Melissa I made this tonight and it was awesome!! So tasty and comforting. It will become a firm family favorite I am sure.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Melissa
Aww, Alison, this made my day. Thanks for letting me know! So glad you liked it!
Roli
Beans still hard even after 10 mins
Melissa
Hi Roli, I've never had this happen before. Was the Instant Pot vent sealed?
Maria
Just had this for dinner tonight. Its good. I added a bit of chicken cubes though.
Karl Papabear Flores
I was at Costco looking for rice. The Costco dude pointed out that there was a huge close out sale on mung beans. My mother-in-law (Filipino) use to make mung bean stew. Never taught me how but I can sometimes recreate stuff. I get it at a few places in San Diego. So I decided your recipe looked very similar to what I remembered. Here are my notes. I did saute onions and pork (added garlic and bell pepper). 1 can coconut milk, 2 cups mung beans 5 cups water. Forgot i had opened a beef stock, next time. cloves, salt and away it went. Selected stew for 35 minutes since I did not soak the beans. When I went to taste, it was a bit bland. My wife asked if I used ginger and fish sauce. And said should not have added the cloves. But adding these at the end is no problem. I added and not exactly my mother-in-laws dish but close and I like it. I think this is a day after type of stew where tomorrow it will be even better. I added the spinach just after I released the steam and it cooked perfectly. Thanks for the recipe.
Melissa Torio
Thanks for sharing your notes. I've never tried it with cloves before either. Good to hear you were able to make something close to your mother-in-law's dish.
karl flores
follow up note, although the flavor was more rich the next day, the beans dried up the liquid which is where a great deal of the flavor lives. I added my beef stock to give it a bit of soup and it was delicious.
Kim W
Hi Melissa. I'm new to Instant Pot. In your notes you say to cook for an hour but in the body of your recipe, you say to cook for 10 minutes. Can you answer which cook time is right?
Melissa Torio
Hi Kim,
The total cook time of 1 hour includes the sauté time, pressurizing and de-pressurizing. The actual Instant Pot cook time is 10 minutes in Bean/Chili or manual mode at high pressure.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. Hope you enjoy your Instant Pot!
Sonia
I loved this stew! I had a bag of mung beans to use up and gave this recipe a try. It didn’t have a lot of ingredients or seasoning, so I was worried it would lack flavour. Not at all! It was rich and flavourful and everyone loved it - from my two year old son to my 80 year old mother. It also took almost no prep or cook time. I will make this over and over again.
Melissa Torio
I'm so glad to hear that you and your family loved this recipe! 🙂