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glass_icarusI made red bean soup (紅豆湯) for a potluck before coming home from Montreal! Recipe per my mom's instructions:
- 1 bag dried red beans (azuki beans)
- orange peel, dried or fresh
- 1/4 cup sugar (my mom said "some"; this is the amount I went with)
- a pinch or two of salt
- ginger (my mom doesn't use this)
Rinse and soak the red beans overnight. Drain and add water to cover the beans- I didn't measure, but I added about the same volume of water again on top. Put in the orange peel. My mom recommends the peel of one orange, I added extra because I was trying to finish the two oranges left in my fridge. I also added a piece of ginger because it's winter and I needed the boost. Boil the beans until soft - I did this in my rice pot, but it can be done on the stovetop. Add sugar and salt after the beans are soft and breaking apart. Boil (or simmer if on stovetop) again and stir to dissolve. The proportion of sugar can be adjusted to your taste, but I really dislike soup that's TOO sweet- it ruins the nice flavor balance. I used 1/4 cup, which was just a bit sweet for me but worked well for everyone else. If you do add more sugar, you should also add more salt to balance it out. You can also add more water if you feel the soup is too thick. Remove the orange peel before serving.
If you'd like to make things a little more interesting, you can add some tangyuan (wiki: 湯圓)! Since they're generally available frozen, I would boil them separately unless you're doing the red bean soup on the stovetop (in which case you can toss them in the pot during the last ~2 minutes probably). I like black sesame tangyuan best, but there are other varieties... including red bean, if you're the kind of person who likes red bean with your red bean. :P
- 1 bag dried red beans (azuki beans)
- orange peel, dried or fresh
- 1/4 cup sugar (my mom said "some"; this is the amount I went with)
- a pinch or two of salt
- ginger (my mom doesn't use this)
Rinse and soak the red beans overnight. Drain and add water to cover the beans- I didn't measure, but I added about the same volume of water again on top. Put in the orange peel. My mom recommends the peel of one orange, I added extra because I was trying to finish the two oranges left in my fridge. I also added a piece of ginger because it's winter and I needed the boost. Boil the beans until soft - I did this in my rice pot, but it can be done on the stovetop. Add sugar and salt after the beans are soft and breaking apart. Boil (or simmer if on stovetop) again and stir to dissolve. The proportion of sugar can be adjusted to your taste, but I really dislike soup that's TOO sweet- it ruins the nice flavor balance. I used 1/4 cup, which was just a bit sweet for me but worked well for everyone else. If you do add more sugar, you should also add more salt to balance it out. You can also add more water if you feel the soup is too thick. Remove the orange peel before serving.
If you'd like to make things a little more interesting, you can add some tangyuan (wiki: 湯圓)! Since they're generally available frozen, I would boil them separately unless you're doing the red bean soup on the stovetop (in which case you can toss them in the pot during the last ~2 minutes probably). I like black sesame tangyuan best, but there are other varieties... including red bean, if you're the kind of person who likes red bean with your red bean. :P
