Haricot mungo

Bitter root on the mildest pulse there is; the bean is a blank the colour needs.

Split mung is fat-free and tastes it. Ghee is the entire body of the dish.

Popped in fat, poured over. It gives a green pulse a roasted floor.

Sharp heat cuts the sweetness before it turns cloying.

Two soft sweetnesses, one with fat. The chilli has somewhere to land.

Khichdi: both cook to collapse at the same speed, which is the whole point.

Green on green — the leaf is louder and drags the bean up with it.

Asia sweetens the bean outright. Caramel over grass, thickened to a paste.

The bean's grass and the leaf's are the same note; one is just far louder.

Apricot-floral over a sweet green paste; the flower does the work sugar cannot.

Both green and faintly bitter. Whisk it into the sweet paste and skip the sugar.