A Kenyan couple was featured in Back Roads, a popular daily show run by ABC Australia for teaching locals how to cook ndengu which is known locally as mung bean.
Ken and Sekai Dacha who moved to Australia from the United Kingdom, revealed that they got the idea following their search for the legumes in local stores in Leeton County.
Ken stated that he met Rob Houghton a local legume farmer, who had the cereals on his farm at a time when they were facing acute shortage.
"I asked him what he was going to do with the farm, he said that he wanted to grow them but as an experiment in crop rotation and not for consumption," his stated.
Sekai stated that she convinced Houghton to supply them with the beans, adding that it could be served as a meal with accompaniment. However, the farmer wanted proof that locals would embrace them.
"We wanted to source it but we could not find it. Having the opportunity to then showcase what it tastes like was fantastic," she stated.
They prepared a mug bean curry and served it to a section of the locals, with an accompaniment of chapati, a favourite back in Kenya. The feedback was overwhelming.
"It is very tasty. I have never cooked them before but I think I should learn how to cook them," one local stated, "It is amazing that they came to down and brought with them some of the culture," another stated.
With Houghton promising to constantly supply them with the cereals, Ken and Sekai hope turned their skill into a lucrative venture.
According to the Australian Mugbean Association, mung bean is relatively unknown to many Australians unless they have a strong connection with Indian and Asian traditional cuisine.
Locals consume it in other forms such as the mungbean butter, which they use on bread and a crushed powder as a cooking ingredient.
The association has since embarked on an awareness programme to encourage locals to consume the legumes because of their nutritional value.
