Red Bean and Black Glutinous Rice Dessert

Here comes a traditional Chinese dessert, red bean sweet soup, that was requested by my reader via email. This popular dessert has many different versions, widely accepted around South Asian countries. If you go for a traditional Chinese banquet, you’ll notice this dessert would often be served to wrap up the dinner. Lotus seeds are always paired with red beans in Chinese dessert. Kindly note that right in the middle of a lotus seed, there is a dark green core. It must be removed before cooking because you don’t want your dessert turns bitter. I also added black glutinous rice this time. The black glutinous rice is very healthy, rich with vitamins B and helps strengthen our blood system. It’s very popular to top with some coconut cream when served.

Red Bean and Black Glutinous Rice Dessert (Printable recipe)

Ingredients:

• 210 gm red beans
• 80 gm black glutinous rice, rinsed and drained
• 40 lotus seeds, the dark green cores removed
• 10 cups water
• ¼ good quality dried mandarin peel (陳皮), available at Asian stores
• rock sugar, to taste

Black Glutinous Rice 黑糯米/紫米

Dried Mandarin Peels 陳皮

Method:

1. Soak red beans for at least 3 hours. If over night, the cooking time would be shortened even more. Rinse and drain well. Soak dried mandarin peel for 20 minutes. Use a knife to scrape off the inner layer. Set aside.
2. Use a large pot. Bring water to a boil. Add red beans, black glutinous rice, lotus sees and mandarin peel. When it boils again, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, or until beans and glutinous rice softened, and the soup thickened. The longer you cook, the softer the beans, the thicker the soup. When it’s almost done, add rock sugar to taste. (Note: I used a thermal pot to cook this dessert. After adding all ingredients, I let it boil for 15 to 20 minutes. Then transfer and place the pot into the shell. I cooked in the morning, then in the afternoon I took out the inner pot and heat up to boil for 15 to 20 minutes. Place in the shell again. In the evening, the soup was done. I just added rock sugar to taste. Save much energy. )

Notes:

• You can adjust the amount of red beans and black glutinous rice according to your preference.
• The amount of water used depends on how high your stove power and how long you cook. Top up with more boiling water if necessary. (If you use thermal pot, you’d need less water.)
• If you would like to enjoy the texture of whole red bean, you just cook to the point what I had. If you like the soup thicker, cook longer time. Or mash the red beans when it starts to soften so that you can shorten the cooking time.
• Many people like to top it with some coconut cream/coconut milk when served.
• If you’re living in some areas where you hardly find any good quality dried mandarin peels, you can replace with fresh orange peels (orange part only, 2 strips 1x3cm long each). The result is quite good.

More recipes of red beans/black glutinous rice:

• Bubur Pulut Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice dessert) from A Table For Two
• No Frills Dessert:Black Glutinous Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk Drizzle  from Fuss Free Cooking
• Mom's Sweet Red Bean Soup Recipe  from Tastes of Home