Quick Answer: What Is Chinese Mung Bean Soup?
Lü Dou Tang (綠豆湯, lǜ dòu tāng) is a soup made from whole green mung beans cooked in water, often sweetened for dessert. The beans soften and may split, giving the liquid a gently grainy texture.[1][2]
- Base: dried mung beans and water.
- Sweetener: rock sugar, ordinary sugar or another recipe-specific choice.
- Serving: warm or chilled, with optional additions that vary between recipes.[1][2]
The green beans here are small dried pulses, not long green vegetable pods.[1]
Local additions can change both the broth and the bite.[3][4]
Whole Green Mung Beans in a Sweet Soup
The starting ingredient is the whole dried mung bean, with its green skin still attached. It differs from yellow split mung beans, whose outer husk has been removed.[1]
Cooking softens the bean inside the skin. Some beans remain recognizable while others break down, depending on the method and the texture wanted.[1][2]
A Simple Base and Optional Additions
The main components have clear roles:
- Mung beans provide the soft, starchy solids.
- Water forms the surrounding broth.
- Sugar or another sweetener changes the soup into a sweet bowl.[1]
One home recipe adds lily-bulb pieces and a little glutinous rice for extra texture and body.[1] Other home variations add pumpkin, or combine the soup with coconut milk and cooked sago.[5]
These additions describe different recipes, rather than a compulsory ingredient list.
Soaking, Simmering and Sweetening the Beans
One straightforward home preparation uses four stages:[2]
- Rinse and sort the beans, removing small stones.
- Soak for four hours; discard the soaking water.
- Add fresh water, boil, then simmer covered for 30–40 minutes until soft.
- Stir in sugar to taste until dissolved.
Watch for boiling over. These timings belong to that recipe; use its complete bean and water quantities.
Thin Broth or a Soft, Grainy Soup
Lü Dou Sha (綠豆沙, lǜ dòu shā) is another name for this dessert. For a thinner bowl, stop when beans soften; longer cooking gives a thicker consistency.[2]
Summer Traditions and Regional Versions
A home cook describes mung bean soup as a recurring summer dish in her family.[1] Its food traditions also include distinct local combinations.
Hong Kong’s Family Health Service documents a kelp-and-mung-bean sweet soup, with optional dried mandarin peel and herbs.[3]
In a recorded Suzhou food community activity, steamed mung beans and glutinous rice were combined with mint water, coloured candied shreds and raisins. This assembled version offers separate textures in a cool liquid rather than relying only on beans simmered into the broth.[4]
FAQs About Chinese Mung Bean Soup
Are the green beans the same as long green pods?
No. This soup uses dried mung beans, a small green pulse.[1]
Can mung bean soup be served cold?
Yes. The plain home recipe can be served hot or cold.[2]
Must mung bean soup contain kelp?
No. Kelp is one documented addition, while plain beans, water and sugar form another version.[2][3]
Sumber
[1] Judy, The Woks of Life. Mung bean soup: beans, ingredients and home preparation
[2] Ellen L., The Hong Kong Cookery. Green bean dessert soup
[3] Hong Kong Department of Health, Family Health Service. Seaweed and mung bean sweet soup: ingredients and method
[4] Suzhou Women’s Federation. Fenghua community: preparing Suzhou-style mung bean soup
[5] Elaine, China Sichuan Food. Mung bean soup and home variations