Chinese Sweet Red Bean Soup

Submitted by Nolita_Food

"This is a wonderful dessert that you can serve hot or cold. Amazingly fresh, perfect for summer. And it's very versatile. You can use mung beans, white beans instead of red beans."

 

• Ready In: 26hrs 30mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 1⁄3 - 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1 cup red beans (soaked in cold water overnight)
• 1⁄3 cup dried lotus seeds (at asian grocery stores or health food stores, soaked in cold water overnight)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1⁄4 cup pearl tapioca (optional)
• 1⁄4 cup glutten rice balls (can be found at asian grocery stores) (optional)
• 7 cups water

directions

1. Combine water and beans in a large pot, bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to simmer, cook uncovered till beans are tender (about 2 hours?).
3. Add lotus seed and sugar (plus tapioca and rice balls if you choose to), cook until soup thickens a little and lotus seeds are tender, but not mushy (20 minutes).
4. Add vanilla, serve hot for a perfect winter dessert, or you can let the soup cool down, then add ice.
5. With this basic recipe, you can take out all the beans, increase the amount of lotus seeds and have a lotus seeds sweet soup instead.

Reviews

[FLKeysJen]

My photo looks a little different from the recipe because I used lily bulbs instead of lotus seeds. I used one 12 pkg azuki beans and then added in the lily bulbs and 6 oz rock candy in Step #3. It is delicious but I enjoy it more as a breakfast (similar to a sweet oatmeal) than a dessert.

 

[Romi224]

This soup is great but the recipe doesn't really tell you how to cook the tapioca or what kind of tapioca to use (like flour or pearls). I used tapioca pearls but by the time the beans were done the pearls weren't fully cooked. I searched the internet and found out that it's best to cook the pearls separately, dip them in a solution of water and brown sugar to give them a sweet taste, and finally add them to the dessert. I also recommend adding coconut milk to the soup to make it more flavorful. This is what I did and in the end it turned out pretty good.