Red Bean Soup 红豆水
Red bean soup(hong dou shui红豆水) is a Chinese popular sweet dessert soup (tang shui 糖水）made with red azuki beans and I love red bean soup very much. I remember my grandma who was a Cantonese always cooked up a storm for the family during the weekends and sweet soup was served even after a heavy lunch. She loved to prepare at least one dessert like black sesame sweet paste soup (chee ma woo芝麻糊), peanut sweet paste soup (fa sheng woo花生糊), mung bean soup (lui dou shui綠豆水) or red bean soup (hong dou shui红豆水). Her red bean soup was one of our family’s favourites as it really tasted delicious. The sweet soup had a smooth and unique texture. Besides adding dried tangerine peel which is a must to give a nice citrus flavour, she also added some glutinous rice in it and simmered the sweet soup for 1 to 2 hours under charcoal fire. How I wish pressure cooker was available during that time so she could save a lot of time making sweet soup (tang shui糖水) and traditional Chinese soup (bao tang煲汤). I think that the charcoal fire has to do with the texture of the sweet soup. Anything cooked with charcoal fire always tasted much better, especially if it’s double boiled soup (don tang炖汤). But now, who’s going to do that but I have neighbours who still have a small Japanese charcoal fire stove and they sometimes cook with that, especially when they make the Chinese dumpling (zong zhi粽子) for the Dumpling Festival.
In memory of my grandma, I am submitting this post to Heritage Food Trail hosted by Edith of Precious Moments.
Red Bean Soup
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Ann Low
Serves: 5 servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup Red beans
- ⅓ cup Glutinous rice
- 8g Dried tangerine peel (soak in water for 10 mins)
- 1.8 Litre Water
- Rock sugar to taste
Instructions
- Rinse and drain the red beans and glutinous rice then place them in the pressure cooker.
- Add dried tangerine peel peel and water into it and bring to boil.
- Give the red beans and glutinous rice a few good stirs before covering the lid. This is to prevent the glutinous rice from sticking to the pot.
- Just heat the up to the required pressure and turn to medium low heat.
- Cook for 30 minutes until steam releases through the safety valve.
- Lastly add rock sugar to taste.
- Serve the red bean soup hot or cold.
Enjoy!
I love red bean soup, especially with extra red beans ^_^Don't know why, cant really find red bean soup at the food courts, now that I hv recipe, I can make my own ^_^
Looking at your red bean soup makes me hungry,! I was taught the same way of cooking reb bean soup too. Adding the rice grain makes the soup ally smoother. Nice!
I love bean soups, but I've never tried anything quite like this. I've never even tasted a cold bean soup. Apparently, I need to experiment a bit more. Your soup looks great.
Hi Ann, your red bean soup bring back some fond childhood memories! How i miss those times…
Without the pressure cooker, this needs to be cooked for so long before the red beans become soft!!!
@Alice LawAlice, Hope you like this dessert soup 🙂
@Ꮮуռ էяɨռɨא (ᵐᵋˢˢᵞ ᴻ ᶜʱᵋᵋᵏᵞ)Lynn,I'm not sure about that but I learned something new from you 🙂 Love the idea of adding barley and rice in the green beans soup. Must be very delicious too.
@CheahSure Cheah, I still have about two bowls of red bean soup left :DD
@lenaLena, There are many versions in adding new ingredients into the red bean soup nowadays. Some like to add black glutinous rice,tang yuan, sago or coconut cream.I don't know how to use the charcoal stove myself, that's why I used pressure cooker to save time 😀
@cherry potatoCherry Potato, 我也时常看到人家加黑糯米,只是我外婆喜欢加白的。
Sweet red bean soup is also one of my favorite desserts. I always save some tangerine peel to make this delicious soup. Excellent entry for the Heritage Food Trail Event.
@neyeelohEsther, you can also make this into popiscle 😀
indeed! it is my grandmother's fav dessert..and whenever i make it, i think of her! yours looks just as fab! and I would love to have a bowl of it now.
@Barefeet In The Kitchenhehee…then you must try this 😀 You'll love it!
@tigerfishTigerfish, Do you know that the gas and electricity are very expensive nowadays? So this is a good way to make use of the pressure cooker 🙂
@CookieHi Cookie, How are you? You must be very busy with your job and life at in UK.Try to make this sweet soup at home with pressure cooker. Your boy will love it 🙂
Thank you everyone for all your lovely comments.
@Jen (Tastes of Home)
Thank you Jen. Yes my grandma was indeed a great cook and too bad I was too young to learn from her.
Since I hv bought a kilo of red bean for making mooncake, I shld allocate some for this recipe too, lol! Nxt mission is to look 4 tangerine!;D
Always a good choice of dessert for me!
@shanShan, 你公公一定是广东人,因为广东人才会加陈皮。
fun soup adore learning about your cultural dishes and festivals Ann
Yes, I remember this tong sui very well too, but sadly, my boys are not partial to sweet soups so I rarely cook this now…yours has the unusual twist of adding glutinous rice which I find very intriguing!
oo that is interesting way of cooking it 🙂
Love red bean desserts. This looks so tasty!
I had no idea they were adzuki beans!
我比较常喝加了黑糯米和椰浆的,下次我会尝试用白糯米。
ooh I bet this is delicious! I've never made red bean soup but I like the sound of it. Anything grandmothers make is bound to be special!
Visiting after a long time here, things look different and beautiful..loved red bean healthy soup …
Delicious red bean soup, add black glutinous rice also very tasty. Nice click.
Oh great I love this bean soup. It's giving an idea how to make our dinner adorable.
Havent try red bean soup with tangerine. Must be very nice.
Mmm just like I grew up with 🙂
I prefer to add dried tangerine peel but my kids don't appreciate it, so I come and drink you red bean soup, hehehe..
Red been soup is a favorite of mine…this looks wonderful 🙂
@daphneDaphne, Thank you! I'll make this again when you're in Singapore 🙂
@Biren @ Roti n RiceThanks Biren 🙂
how would you cook this without a pressure cooker? just a regular pot?
You can boil in a pot of water and simmer until the red beans till soft. This might takes an hour to boil.
I just had my dinner, can I have a bowl for dessert? My mum used to add black glutinous rice to this red bean soup and I always love it with the dried tangerine.
我公公煮红豆水也会放晒干的柑皮,味道真的不同。
i dint know abt adding the glutinous rice. Next time i cook red bean soup, i must try to add some. Even here, i think there are still many households using charcoal stove to boil certain soup, double boils especially.. for soup that requires long hours..they say it's much cheaper compared to using gas stove!
@Cheah
Sure Cheah, I still have about two bowls of red bean soup left :DD
Red bean soup is one of my favourite 'tong sui'…your grandma sounds like she was a great cook 🙂 I'm sure cooking with charcoal fire gives it an unbeatable fragrance as well…thanks for sharing this heirloom recipe of yours!
Red bean soup plus tangerine peel is a heavenly match!!!! I love this old time favourite dessert!!!!! And yours sure sounds good with Glutinous Rice which is something new to me 🙂
We love to have this once in a while, just had this a few weeks back! I like to eat it warm! Yours are making me think about having it again! 🙂
This is truly special! I've not tried with glutinous rice with red bean before but I bet it gives it an extra chewiness. 😉 Looks yum! Your grandma will be proud!
@LyndseyLyndsey, you're so lucky. During my grandmother's time, they never heard of "recipes" before. When I wanted to know how she cooked some dishes, she just told me little bit here and there…hahaa.
Ann this is great! I love seeing family recipes. So wonderful how food brings back such memories of loved ones. I posted a couple of my grandma's recipes and I am trying to get more from my mother. She has her old recipe box.I have some azuki beans in my pantry too ready to give it a try! Thanks for sharing the recipe and the memories.
@Fong's Kitchen JournalFong~ These are very pure Cantonese "tang shui". I actually wanted to make green bean soup but I was lazy to go to Chinatown to get the 臭草. I really love the臭草 smell but not my family.
hi anncoo the bean soup looks great i remember my mother is also making bean soup but she use mung beans I would love make one.