I’ve given you a couple recipes for sweet red bean soups. Here is one for a savory version, a simple red bean congee. There are many variations throughout east Asia, with additions ranging from red dates to various nuts, to pumpkin.
According to Chinese medicine, the barley version of this dish is great for fighting “dampness”, whatever that it. Don’t mix rice with the barley though, or it won’t work.
I actually looked at recipes in Chinese and Korean (via Google translate) for this. Most of them didn’t actually have quantities listed, so feel free to adjust grain-bean ratios to you taste
I have adjusted the instructions from what I used, because it ran out of water before the beans were cooked in my original version. I haven’t actually tested this set, but it follows instructions I saw used in several of the recipes I based this off. If you try this, let me know how it works.
Red dates are actually dried jujubes, a fruit in the apple family. I actually got hold of some fresh jujubes a few years ago and dried them myself, and then never followed though on the project I had in mind for them, so this was the first time I had used them. They definitely don’t taste like real dates, but the way they behaved in the porridge was very date like.
The other rice varieties listed in the optional ingredients seem to usually be added in addition to regular rice.
Hong Dou Zhou
Serves: 1
Prep: 5 Minuts
Cook: ~1 Hour
Total 1:05 plus soaking time
65 g adzuki beans
50 g rice
OR
100 g Barley
2 1/2 cups Water
3 red dates
2/3 g salt
Optional:
1 g sugar
85 g glutinous rice dumplings (see hong dou tang for instructions)
40 g black rice
17 g glutinous rice
6 g rock sugar
Soak beans (and barley) for about 4 hours. Soak rice for about 1 hour. Drain beans (and barley) and transfer to a pot, along with water, red dates and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add rice and continue to cook until everything is soft and porridgy.
Lorin cooks Legumes 
One Comment Add yours