Easy Red Bean Soup With Coconut Milk 椰汁紅豆沙

Tong Sui 糖水

Red Bean Soup a classic Cantonese dessert soup. Tong Sui, translated as "sugar water', is commonly served at the end of meals in most Chinese restaurants and at Chinese banquet. Sweet red bean soup is one of those dishes that encompasses nostalgia and childhood memories. There are many variations of this red bean soup: some people like to add green mung beans, lotus seeds, lily bulbs, black glutinous rice, etc. But the basic red bean soup base is consistently made with red beans, rock sugar and Chinese mandarin peel.

Let's Get Fancy

If you want to get fancy, you can also add tofu pudding, sago or black sesame soup. All these variations are typical of iconic dessert soup shops in Hong Kong.

Other Red Bean Desserts

• Red Bean Soup
• Red Bean Paste Tang Yuan
• Red Bean Ice
• Read Bean Paste Rice Cake
• Red bean pudding

Next time, give these new recipes a try and make during Chinese New Year instead of just hong dou tang. It is my favorite way enjoy red beans as one of the main ingredient. Plus you can reap the benefits of good health! You may even want to try making Chinese red bean cake recipe.

Where Can You Buy Red Beans?

You can find small red beans at most Asian grocery stores or Chinese herbal stores. You can even buy them online here.

Keep in mind that these organic red beans or red mung beans are not the same as red kidney beans! They are very different!

Health Benefits of Chinese Herbs

紅豆 Red Beans / Adzuki - Antioxidant and improves cardiovascular health. Protein dense and low in fat. High levels of potassium, fibre, vitamin Bs, iron and zinc. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, red beans removes dampness, promotes calmness, restores the mind and regulates spleen and kidney functions. 红豆清心养神、健脾益肾功效.

蓮子 Lotus Seed / Semen Nelumbinis Nuciferae – Dried lotus seeds are sweet and promote spleen, kidney and heart. Those suffering from insomnia will find comfort in its ‘de-heating’ properties. Lotus seeds also reduce hemorrhaging.

蓮子去熱，蓮子心性寒。 蓮子調理脾胃，促進消化有幫助，治療失眠等功效

百合 Lily Bulbs / Lilium lancifolium - Lily bulbs' nature is cold and helps lower heat, relieve coughs, dry throats and other respiratory conditions like chronic bronchitis, asthma, etc. Its properties treat restlessness and irritability and promote restful sleep.

百合解毒、理脾健胃、利湿消积、宁心安神、促进血液循环等功效。

陳皮 Dried Chinese Mandarin Peel - Aged tangerine peel is soothing and normalizes your meridians. It helps relieves cold and reduces phlegm, congestions and stagnation of Qi. It improves digestion, reduces dampness and promotes spleen functions. Choose dried Chinese mandarin peels that are well aged.

温经通络、散寒化痰、 理气健脾，燥湿化痰，治咳嗽。對於一些咳嗽痰多、噁心、腹脹或者是食慾不振的患者俱有很好的作用。

椰汁 Coconut Milk - Coconut milk is nutrient rich and invigorates the spleen and kidney. It is diuretic and reduces inflammation. In terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine, coconut milk tonify yin and expels cold. Coconut milk is sweet and neutral temperature. Aids weight loss.

椰奶性平味甘, 有補脾益腎，利尿消腫，祛風止癢。滋润皮肤，美容养颜。

冰糖 Rock Sugar - The soothing taste of rock sugar is the perfect additional for sweet dessert soup. This natural sweetner invigorates middle meridian, improves Qi, moisturizes the lungs, quenches thirst and relieves coughs and phlegm. In additional, rock sugar clears heat and nourishes yin.

冰糖性平, 補中益氣、和胃潤肺、止咳化痰、祛煩消渴、清熱降濁、養陰生津、止汗解毒等功能。治療中氣不足、肺熱咳嗽、咯痰帶血、陰虛久咳、口燥咽乾、咽喉腫痛、風火牙痛等病症。

How To Cook Tapioca Pearls Sago

Tapioca sago pearls is a fantastic ingredient to add to your favourite sweet dessert, bubble tea, and shaved ice desserts in asian cuisine.

Dried white tapioca pearls require longer cook time and enough water. Tapioca balls or boba are tiny pea sized, small translucent spheres made with tapioca starch which comes from the cassava root.

Add tapioca pearls straight from the package into boiling water in a large pot. Cooking sago pearls require a large amount of water. As the cassava pearls expand, they may not cook thoroughly if you do not have enough water.

Use the ratio of six cups of water for one cup of tapioca pearls.

After adding the tapioca pearls, bring the water to a boil again. Reduce to low-medium heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir frequently to avoid sticking.

After 15 minutes, turn off the heat and keep the pot covered. Let rest for another 10-15 minutes. The pearls are fully cooked when you no longer is white centers, only translucent spheres.

Drain and rinse tapioca pearls under cold water.

Add cooked tapioca pears in sugar water to prevent them from sticking together.

Ingredients You Will Need To Make Red Bean Soup Recipe

Red Beans

Lotus Seed

Lily Bulbs

Dried Chinese Mandarin Peel

Rock Sugar

Coconut Milk

Tapioca Pearls (Sago) - optional

Instant Pot Red Beans Soup Recipe

Making sweet mung bean soups is super easy and can be done without soaking! It takes only a few ingredients that you can store in the pantry. Using an Instant Pot pressure cooker reduces the cook time by half! Pressure cooking cooks a pot of beans without soaking dried adzuki beans in a fraction of the time. In the past, so much time is used prepping and soaking the beans overnight! Compared to using an electric pressure cooker, even using a slow cooker took too long!

For me, the perfect way to cook red bean soup is to pressure cook on high pressure for 45 minutes and let it naturally release pressure. Natural release will take approximately 20 minutes. If you are in a hurry, you can also opt of quick release.

Afterwards, I like to emulsify my red bean soup by bringing the soup to a boil using the "Soup Mode" - I find this brings out the nutty flavours of legumes better! Alternatively, you can use an immersion blender to emulsify the sweet red beans sweet soup.

Enjoy either cold or hot.

Add full fat coconut milk.

Add cooked tapioca pearls if desired.

After the cooking process, you may wish to add coconut milk and also tapioca pearls.

Red Beans Soup Stovetop Method

If you do not have an Instant Pot , a regular pressure cooker, or you prefer the stovetop method, you will need to pre-soak the red beans, lotus seeds, and lily bulbs. Soaking the red beans will make your sweet soup become extra "sandy / grainy". A good red bean soup will have a nice grainy texture!

Boil your ingredients plus 10 cups of water on medium heat for 2 hours then boil for 30 mins on high heat.

For stovetop method, I like using cast iron pots like Le Creuset or Staub to maintain balanced circulated heat and reduce moisture loss.

Enjoy either cold or hot.

Add full fat coconut milk.

Add cooked tapioca pearls if desired.