The Best Thing cdrama red bean recipes start with a quiet scene in Episode 15: He Suye arrives with two jars of adzuki beans and a set of handwritten medicinal food cards, and Shen Xifan's father cooks them for her the very next morning. She sends He Suye a photo. No fanfare. Just food doing what food does in TCM.
The two preparations he almost certainly wrote down are 赤小豆鲤鱼汤 (adzuki bean and carp soup), a classical formula that dates back to the Tang dynasty, and 红豆水 (red bean water), the simplest daily drink in the TCM food therapy toolkit. Both use adzuki beans (赤小豆), not the larger red beans you'd use in a dessert soup. That distinction matters more than it sounds.
These are the The Best Thing cdrama red bean recipes, broken down so you can actually make them.
> In This Post: Everything You Need for The Best Chinese Red Bean Soup For Mood and Stress
If you've been searching for a 赤小豆鲤鱼汤 recipe in English, this is the one. The steps follow the traditional method with a practical home cook version that doesn't require you to read classical Chinese to get it right.
And, if heartbreak had a TCM prescription, it would look exactly like what He Suye handed Shen Xifan in Episode 15 of The Best Thing 爱你: two jars of adzuki beans and a set of handwritten medicinal recipes her father quietly cooked the next morning. The drama invented this scene entirely, it doesn't exist anywhere in the original novel by 笙离, which makes it one of the most overlooked moments in the show and one of the most practical.
Jump to:
- > In This Post: Everything You Need for The Best Chinese Red Bean Soup For Mood and Stress
- The Best Thing Cdrama Red Bean Recipes
- Instructions - Step-by-Step Cooking Method For TCM Adzuki Bean Carp Fish Soup Recipe
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Other TCM Red Bean Recipes and Soups to Try
- > Recipe Cards
- Adzuki Bean and Carp Soup (TCM) 赤小豆鲤鱼汤
- TCM Red Bean Water 红豆水
The Scene the Novel Never Had
The original novel 《爱你，是我做过最好的事》 by 笙离 Shengli structures its 29 chapters each around a single TCM herb or ingredient. Licorice, angelica root, osmanthus, perilla leaf. There is no chapter named 红豆. The red bean medicinal food moment was written specifically for the drama adaptation and exists nowhere in the source text.
That makes this one of the most underwritten corners of The Best Thing in English. No chapter. No source passage. Just a screenwriter who understood TCM food therapy well enough to invent a prescription that holds up.
The original novel is archived at novel101.com if you want to compare the two versions yourself.
That's what makes The Best Thing cdrama red bean recipes worth documenting properly.
What He Suye Actually Prescribed
In Episode 15, He Suye returns to Hang City and gets Shen Xifan to come downstairs under the pretext of a birthday gift. He gives her two jars of adzuki beans (赤小豆) and several TCM red bean medicinal food recipes, explaining that red beans help clear stagnation and heal sores, and that the dishes can help regulate her mood. He's been through a painful breakup himself. He knows exactly what he's prescribing and why.
The camera doesn't linger on the recipe cards. The specific dishes are never shown on screen, which is very true to how a TCM practitioner actually thinks. Red beans are sweet and sour in taste and neutral in nature, meaning they can be prescribed broadly without needing to account for whether a patient runs hot or cold. It's a low-risk, high-care gesture. Very He Suye.
The next morning, he messages her asking if she's tried the dishes. She sends him a photo of what her father made. Her dad cooked them, not her. That detail is easy to miss, and it matters.
Red Beans Chinese Herbal Benefits and TCM Properties
In TCM, 赤小豆 (adzuki beans) are not the same as the larger red beans you'd use in a Hong Kong dessert soup. Adzuki beans are smaller, darker, and elongated. They're the medicinal variety, and their documented functions are promoting urination, reducing oedema, clearing stagnation, and detoxifying. The two are frequently confused at the grocery store, and the medicinal effects belong specifically to adzuki beans.
One distinction worth knowing before you shop: Adzuki beans (赤小豆) are not the same as ordinary red beans (紅豆). Adzuki beans are smaller, darker, and more elongated. The medicinal properties documented in classical TCM texts belong to 赤小豆 specifically. The larger round variety is fine in dessert soups and perfectly pleasant, but it won't do what He Suye intended. Check the label at T&T and look for the Chinese characters 赤小豆 to be sure you have the right one.
赤小豆 (adzuki beans) are classified as sweet and sour in taste and neutral in nature. Neutral means they can be prescribed to almost anyone regardless of constitution, which is exactly why He Suye hands them to Shen Xifan without needing to take her pulse first.
Their primary functions are promoting urination, reducing oedema, clearing blood stasis, and detoxifying. In plain terms, they help the body move what's stuck. The puffiness, the low mood, the physical heaviness that builds up during prolonged stress and poor sleep, all of that maps to a TCM pattern of stagnation that adzuki beans are specifically suited to address.
He Suye prescribes them to Shen Xifan after a brutal breakup and months of chronic stress and poor sleep. In TCM terms, unresolved grief and emotional strain cause blood stasis, 瘀, and adzuki beans move that stagnation. The physical symptoms she's been carrying, the puffiness, the fatigue, the low mood, are all downstream effects of the same root pattern. Red beans address them at the source.
For anyone looking for a TCM soup for water retention and bloating, 赤小豆鲤鱼汤 is the most historically grounded option in the Cantonese food therapy canon, with a formula that dates back over a thousand years and still makes clinical sense today.
The Best Thing Cdrama Red Bean Recipes
He Suye didn't write one recipe on those cards. He wrote several. Based on what the drama establishes about his TCM rationale, the ingredients he hands over, and the dish Shen Xifan's father cooks the following morning, these are the The Best Thing cdrama red bean recipes he most likely prescribed, and the ones worth making at home.
赤小豆鲤鱼汤 (Adzuki Bean and Carp Soup)
This is almost certainly the dish Shen Xifan's father cooked from He Suye's recipe cards. The combination of adzuki beans and carp is one of the oldest pairings in Chinese medicinal food therapy, first documented in the Tang dynasty text 《外台秘要》. Together they strengthen the spleen and kidneys, promote urination, and reduce fluid stagnation causing puffiness in the face, limbs, and abdomen.
The classical version is deliberately plain: carp cleaned and deboned, adzuki beans soaked and rinsed, both simmered together in water with no seasoning until the fish is soft and the broth is milky. You eat it without salt. The restraint is the point. Salt burdens the kidneys, and the whole formula is trying to lighten that load.
A more approachable home version pan-fries the carp first in a little oil with ginger slices until golden on both sides, then adds the soaked adzuki beans, dried tangerine peel (陳皮), and enough water to cover generously. The broth simmers over medium heat until it turns a deep, cloudy white. Spring onion and a pinch of white pepper go in at the end. This version has actual flavour without compromising the TCM logic.
Carp is available fresh at T&T in the live fish tanks. Ask the counter to clean it for you.
红豆水 (Red Bean Water)
The simpler of the two preparations is the one you can make on a Tuesday without planning. Red bean water (红豆水) is adzuki beans simmered in plain water with nothing added, then drunk as a broth throughout the day. No sugar, no salt, no other ingredients. The beans release their properties into the water and you drink the liquid, not the beans themselves.
The traditional approach is one bowl, three times a day, for several consecutive days. It's used in TCM specifically for water retention, premenstrual bloating, and the kind of low-grade physical heaviness that builds up during periods of chronic stress. He Suye prescribes it because it's something Shen Xifan can make herself, every day, without thinking too hard about it. That's good medicine.
紅豆陳皮黑米粥 (Red Bean, Chen Pi and Black Rice Congee)
This one takes a little more time than the red bean water but not much more thought. Red bean, dried tangerine peel, and black rice congee (紅豆陳皮黑米粥) is a gentle, nourishing porridge that combines the stagnation-clearing properties of adzuki beans with the qi-moving function of chen pi and the blood-nourishing depth of black rice. In TCM terms, it works on multiple layers at once, which is why it shows up consistently in food therapy for emotional recovery and post-stress fatigue.
Black rice (黑米) enters the kidney and spleen meridians, nourishes yin, and replenishes what chronic stress depletes. Dried tangerine peel (陳皮) keeps the whole formula moving so the congee doesn't sit heavy. Together with adzuki beans, the three ingredients address the pattern He Suye keeps coming back to throughout the drama: a depleted spleen, stagnant qi, and a nervous system that hasn't had a proper rest in months.
It's the kind of congee that makes sense to cook on a Sunday evening and eat across two or three mornings. The texture is thicker than the red bean water and more filling, which makes it practical for anyone who needs to eat something warm before work but doesn't have the appetite for a full meal. If you have a rice cooker with a congee setting, it does the work overnight. I usually buy black rice and adzuki beans at Costco in the same trip because both keep well in bulk and go into enough recipes to justify the bag size.
Ingredients - Adzuki Bean and Carp Soup Recipe
This recipe has a short ingredient list for something with a thousand-year pedigree. Every item has a job, and most are one T&T run away.
Whole carp (鯉魚), around 600g to 800g, is the protein anchor of this soup and the ingredient that makes it distinctly medicinal rather than simply comforting. In TCM, carp strengthens the spleen and promotes urination, amplifying everything the adzuki beans are already doing. T&T carries live freshwater carp at the fish counter. Ask them to clean and scale it while you shop. The freshness of a live fish makes a noticeable difference to the final broth.
Dried adzuki beans (赤小豆) at 100g are the heart of this formula. Make sure you're buying the small, dark, elongated variety labelled 赤小豆, not the larger round red beans used in dessert soups. They are not the same ingredient and they do not have the same medicinal properties. T&T stocks them in the dried goods aisle. I usually buy them at Costco in bulk because the quality is consistent and the price makes sense for a bag you'll work through across multiple batches of soup and red bean water.
Fresh ginger (生薑), two to three thin slices, warms the formula and reduces any fishiness in the broth. In TCM, ginger disperses cold and settles the stomach. It's the quiet background note that keeps the soup from feeling flat.
Dried tangerine peel (陳皮), one strip soaked and scraped, moves qi through the formula so the soup doesn't sit heavy after eating. It adds a faint citrus depth to the broth without overwhelming the other flavours. T&T and any Chinese grocery carry it in the dried herbs section. If you cook TCM soups regularly, it's worth buying a larger quantity because chen pi goes into almost everything.
Drinking Water at six cups is enough to produce a generous, cloudy broth. Use cold water and bring it up slowly after the initial pan-fry. This is what builds the milky colour.
Neutral oil, one teaspoon, is used only for pan-frying the carp before the liquid goes in. This step reduces fishiness, adds colour, and produces a richer, cloudier broth than a straight poach would. It's worth the extra five minutes.
Spring onion and white pepper go in at the very end. For the classical TCM version, omit both and eat the soup unseasoned. For a version with actual flavour that still honours the formula, a pinch of white pepper and two stalks of spring onion are all you need.
Most dry goods ingredients, tools, and supplies can be purchased at local Asian markets, Chinese grocery stores, or Amazon Online. Amazon Prime members receive free shipping and faster delivery times.
Where to Buy in Canada
T&T Supermarket carries dried adzuki beans year-round in the dried goods aisle, usually in 400g packages. The live carp tanks are at the fish counter in most T&T locations. You can ask them to clean and scale it for you while you finish shopping, which saves about ten minutes and a lot of effort at home.
For dried adzuki beans in bulk, I usually buy them at my local Asian supermarket because the quality is consistent and the price per gram is considerably better than smaller retail packages. A large bag keeps for months in a sealed container and covers multiple batches of both the soup and the daily red bean water without another grocery run. Dried tangerine peel (陳皮) is in the dried herbs section at T&T or any Chinese grocery.
Instructions - Step-by-Step Cooking Method For TCM Adzuki Bean Carp Fish Soup Recipe
How to Make This Classic TCM Chinese Medicinal Soup For Emotional Recovery
This is the centrepiece of The Best Thing cdrama red bean recipes He Suye prescribes in Episode 15.
This adzuki bean and carp soup (赤小豆鲤鱼汤) follows a traditional method that's been in use since the Tang dynasty. The steps are straightforward: soak, pan-fry, simmer. What matters most is using the right variety of beans, not rushing the broth, and resisting the urge to season heavily. The pan-fry step takes an extra five minutes but produces a broth that's visibly richer and milkier than a straight poach.
The prep takes about 15 minutes, most of which is soaking. Get the beans soaking the night before and you'll have everything in the pot within 20 minutes the next day.
Soak the adzuki beans overnight or for a minimum of 4 hours in cold water. Drain and rinse well before cooking. Soaking is not optional. Unsoaked adzuki beans take significantly longer to soften and produce a thinner, less cloudy broth.
Prepare the carp. If you had T&T clean it for you, give it a quick rinse at home and pat it completely dry inside and out. A dry surface is what lets the fish colour properly in the pan rather than steam.
Pan-fry the carp in a thin layer of neutral oil over medium-high heat, 3 to 4 minutes per side until lightly golden. This step reduces fishiness, seals in flavour, and is what gives the finished broth its characteristic milky white colour. Don't skip it.
Add all ingredients to the pot. Lay the pan-fried carp in a wide pot or clay pot. Add the drained adzuki beans, ginger slices, soaked and scraped dried tangerine peel, and 6 cups of cold water. Bring to a full boil over high heat.
Reduce and simmer uncovered over medium heat for 35 to 40 minutes. The broth will turn cloudy and white as it cooks. Resist the urge to cover the pot fully, as an open simmer produces a better colour and concentrates the flavour.
Season and serve. Add spring onion and a pinch of white pepper in the final 2 minutes. Taste before adding salt. For the classical TCM version, skip all seasoning entirely and serve the soup plain. Drink the broth warm and eat the fish and beans alongside.
Instant Pot: Use the sauté function to pan-fry the carp directly in the pot, then add all remaining ingredients and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes with natural pressure release. The broth won't reach the same milky depth as stovetop but the flavour holds up well on a weeknight.
Best Time to Make This Soup?
The Chinese carp soup TCM benefits go beyond simple nourishment. Carp strengthens the spleen, promotes urination, and amplifies everything the adzuki beans are already doing, making it one of the most complete single-pot formulas in Cantonese medicinal cooking.
Spring is the most logical season for adzuki bean and carp soup (赤小豆鲤鱼汤). TCM associates spring with the liver, the organ most directly affected by emotional strain and unresolved stress. It's also when fluid stagnation from a heavy winter tends to surface as puffiness, low energy, and a general feeling of being waterlogged. The formula addresses both at once. If you want to understand the full seasonal picture, the Jingzhe spring dampness TCM guide on Nomss covers exactly why spring is when the spleen needs the most support.
That said, this soup doesn't belong to one season. The spleen qi deficiency and blood stagnation pattern He Suye prescribes it for can show up any time, after a difficult period at work, at the tail end of a breakup, or during the kind of sustained low-grade exhaustion that doesn't have a dramatic cause but accumulates quietly. If the pattern fits, the soup fits.
In Cantonese cooking, soups like this are made year-round as part of ordinary family eating rather than reserved for acute moments. Shen Xifan's father cooked it on a regular weekday morning from a doctor's handwritten cards. That's the right energy. You don't need a crisis to justify a pot of adzuki bean soup. You just need a bag of 赤小豆, a fresh carp from T&T, and about an hour to put a proper adzuki bean fish soup recipe on the table.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
He Suye answers most of these questions across 28 episodes. Here are the ones that come up when you're standing in T&T holding a bag of adzuki beans, wondering if you bought the right ones.
Adzuki beans (赤小豆) are smaller, darker, and more elongated than the common red beans used in dessert soups and tang yuan filling. In TCM, they're classified as a medicinal ingredient with specific functions including promoting urination, reducing oedema, and clearing blood stasis. The larger, rounder red beans have different properties and are not interchangeable for medicinal use.
In TCM, emotional strain and unresolved grief cause blood stasis, a condition where qi and blood aren't moving freely through the body. The physical symptoms of that stagnation, low mood, puffiness, fatigue, poor sleep, are what Shen Xifan has been experiencing. Adzuki beans disperse stasis and help the body move through that blockage. The prescription is logical, not sentimental.
Red bean water in moderate amounts is generally considered safe for healthy adults. TCM food therapy is usually prescribed in short courses of a few days to a week, then assessed. Daily long-term use without guidance from a licensed TCM practitioner isn't recommended.
No. The original novel 《爱你，是我做过最好的事》 by 笙离 Shengli has no chapter named 红豆 and no red bean prescription scene. The entire moment was written for the drama adaptation. That makes these recipes genuinely original to the show.
The full drama is available on iQIYI with English subtitles.
Shen Xifan's father cooked these recipes from a set of handwritten cards a doctor gave his heartbroken daughter. You can do the same thing on a weeknight, with a carp and a bag of adzuki beans from T&T.
Other TCM Red Bean Recipes and Soups to Try
If this post has you reaching for a bag of adzuki beans more than once a week, there's good reason to keep going. The spleen qi deficiency and blood stagnation pattern He Suye treats throughout The Best Thing 爱你 doesn't resolve in a single pot of soup. These Nomss recipes address the same pattern from different angles.
The jujube goji berry sleep tea from the main cdrama post is the natural companion to this soup. One nourishes blood and calms the spirit before bed, the other clears stagnation and moves fluid through the day. He Suye would approve of running both concurrently.
More TCM recipes for clearing stagnation, supporting the spleen, and rebuilding after a difficult season:
Chrysanthemum Honeysuckle Tea 菊花金銀花茶
Pin this post to your Chinese Medicinal Food Therapy TCM Recipe Pinterest board. Adzuki bean season is every season, but it hits differently in spring.
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> Recipe Cards
PrintAdzuki Bean and Carp Soup (TCM) 赤小豆鲤鱼汤
A classical TCM medicinal food soup inspired by He Suye's red bean recipes from The Best Thing 爱你 cdrama. This Adzuki Bean Fish Soup Recipe 赤小豆鲤鱼汤 follows a classical Tang dynasty formula combining fresh carp and adzuki beans to strengthen the spleen and clear fluid stagnation. It also addresses the low mood and physical heaviness that follow chronic stress. One of the most historically grounded Chinese red bean recipes for mood and stress in the Traditional Chinese Medicine!
This is the centrepiece of The Best Thing cdrama red bean recipes He Suye prescribes in Episode 15.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 2 1x
- Category: Soup
- Method: Boil
- Cuisine: Chinese, TCM
Ingredients
- 1 whole carp (about 600g to 800g), scaled and cleaned
- 100g dried adzuki beans (赤小豆), soaked overnight
- 2 slices fresh ginger
- 1 strip dried tangerine peel (陳皮), soaked and scraped
- 6 C water
- 1 tsp neutral oil for pan-frying
- Salt and white pepper to taste (optional, omit for classical version)
- 2 stalks spring onion, cut into sections
Instructions
- Soak the adzuki beans overnight or for at least 4 hours. Drain and rinse.
- Pat the carp dry inside and out. Heat oil in a wok or wide pot over medium-high heat. Pan-fry the carp for 3 to 4 minutes per side until lightly golden. This step reduces fishiness and builds a milkier broth.
- Add ginger, drained adzuki beans, tangerine peel, and water. Bring to a boil over high heat.
- Reduce to a medium simmer and cook uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes until the broth is cloudy white and the beans are fully soft.
- Add spring onion and season lightly with salt and white pepper if using. Simmer a further 2 minutes.
- Serve the broth warm. Eat the fish and beans alongside.
Notes
For the classical TCM version, omit all seasoning and eat the soup plain. The formula works without salt. If you can't find whole carp, a fresh whole tilapia or sea bass works. Adzuki beans must be soaked first or the beans won't soften properly. Not recommended in large quantities during pregnancy without practitioner guidance. Consult a licensed TCM practitioner for personalised advice.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 pot
- Calories: 227
- Sugar: 1.8 g
- Sodium: 1269.6 mg
- Fat: 1.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 47.9 g
- Fiber: 2.2 g
- Protein: 6 g
- Cholesterol: 9.4 mg
TCM Red Bean Water 红豆水
The simplest preparation from He Suye's red bean medicinal food bundle in The Best Thing 爱你 cdrama. Plain Adzuki Bean Water 红豆水 for daily use to reduce water retention, clear stagnation, and support mood during periods of chronic stress or emotional recovery.
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 3 bowls 1x
- Category: Drink
- Method: Boil
- Cuisine: Chinese, TCM
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 80g dried adzuki beans (赤小豆)
- 6 cups water
- No seasoning
Instructions
- Soak adzuki beans overnight. Drain and rinse.
- Add beans and water to a small pot. Bring to a boil over high heat.
- Reduce to a low simmer and cook uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes.
- Strain the broth into a container. Drink one bowl warm, three times across the day.
- Repeat for 3 to 5 consecutive days.
Notes
Use adzuki beans (赤小豆), the small dark elongated variety, not the larger round red beans used in dessert soups. The medicinal properties belong specifically to adzuki beans. No sugar, no salt. The broth should taste faintly earthy and mildly sweet on its own.
Nutrition
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