Sweet Red Bean Soup
This hearty dessert is delicious both hot and cold!
Cooking Summary
Ingredients: (detailed list)
- Main Ingredients: red bean, lotus seed, dried lily bulb, rock sugar, brown sugar, dried mandarin peel, water
- Seasoning: salt
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Top 3 Mistakes
- Skipping the soaking step:
Rehydrate the dried ingredients before you start cooking. Follow the recipe’s soaking instructions so they soften properly rather than staying tough in the finished dish.
- Adding thickener too fast:
Add the starch mixture gradually while stirring, checking the texture as it thickens. Pouring it all in at once gives you less control over the final consistency of the sauce.
- Keeping the boil too fierce:
Turn down the heat when the recipe moves to a simmer. A hard boil changes how quickly liquid evaporates and how gently the ingredients cook, so follow that change in heat.
Overview
Beans for dessert? Absolutely! In fact, red beans are especially common as a dessert ingredient in many cuisines.
This dessert in particular cooks the red beans thoroughly, intentionally bursting them to get their hearty, sandy texture out to help thicken the soup, hence the name 紅豆沙 which means Red Bean Sand.
Ingredients
Why this recipe
Most sweet red bean soup recipes online are tested only a handful of times. My dad used to make this dish multiple times a day, every day, for 60+ years and can make this in his sleep.
I know you'll love it as much as our community does! This recipe has over 203.6K views, 3.4K likes on YouTube.
Which kind of sugar?
For this recipe, we're using two types of sugar: rock sugar and brown sugar.
Rock sugar (Amazon) is a mild sugar that comes in a crystal chunk. It's widely used in Cantonese dessert soups like this, as well as braised dishes and sometimes to sweeten tea.
Another type of rock sugar that's common in Cantonese cooking is 片糖, slab sugar (Amazon), and if you have that instead, definitely use it for this soup! It's the same as rock sugar but with a stronger molasses flavor.
Brown sugar is probably much more familiar to you. The color comes from having molasses sprayed over white sugar, so there's just a bit more caramel-y depth to its sweetness compared to typical white granulated sugar.
If you don't have these sugars, or you can't have these, you can definitely use granulated sugar or other sweeteners!
Lotus seeds and lily bulbs in my soup?
These ingredients are both tasty and meaningful. Lotus seeds are associated with the newlywed blessing of having a child soon. Dried lily bulbs are associated with enjoying 100 years of happiness. Sounds great!
Their pale color also serves as a striking contrast in a bowl of red bean soup, and the ingredients add texture as well. If you can find them, definitely add them to this soup. If you can't, it's fine to omit them.
How to make Sweet Red Bean Soup
Rinse the red beans (14 oz) with clean water and pour out the water. You'll likely see some dust and debris. Rinse again with clean water and pour out the water from the second rinse. Then, soak them in clean water, enough to submerge the red beans, for at least an hour, up to overnight.
Don't soak them more than a day, though, or they may sprout.
Wash the lotus seeds (2 oz) and dried lily bulbs (2 oz) as well, and soak them the same way, in clean water, enough to submerge the ingredients, for at least an hour.
In a large pot, add water (4 cup), salt (0.50 tsp), the soaked beans, and the dried mandarin peel (1 piece). Turn the heat all the way up to bring the water to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down. Simmer on the lowest heat for half an hour.
After simmering for half an hour, add the soaked lotus seeds and dried lily bulbs. Then continue to simmer, still at the lowest heat, for another hour.
After an hour and a half, the beans should be soft and tender. You can test them by scooping a bean out and squeezing it. If it's tender, your fingers should easily crush it.
For an even softer texture, you can simmer it for even longer. On the other hand, if you prefer firmer beans, cut the simmering time and only cook the beans to your preferred firmness.
Once you're happy with the texture of the beans, it's time to sweeten the soup. Add rock sugar (2 oz) and brown sugar (6 oz). Stir to make sure the sugars dissolve. Large pieces of rock sugar may take a while.
If you'd like to thicken the soup, there are two ways to do so. First, you can take a ladle and press down on the beans. The crushed beans will thicken the soup and make it "sandy", as the name refers to.
The other method is our reliable cornstarch slurry. Mix up a 1:2 ratio of cornstarch to water, fulling dissolving the powder to avoid clumping. Slowly pour the slurry in while stirring, and it will thicken up the soup.
If the soup is too thick, simply dilute with more water.
Give it a taste. You can add more sugar if it's not sweet enough. Once you're happy with it, transfer to a serving bowl and enjoy!
Store any leftovers in the refrigerator. Reheat to enjoy again, or try it cold!
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to presoak red beans for soup?
Yes! Dried beans always need a good soak. Soak for at least an hour, up to overnight. The majority of the bean surface is actually rather impermeable, and there's only a small area where the water can soak in and rehydrate the bean. It's not a quick process! That's why you need to give your dried beans plenty of soaking time.
Do you add dried mandarin peels to sweet soup?
It depends on your personal preference. We like the flavor, and we also have an abundance of dried mandarin peels, so we always put a piece into our sweet red bean soup. If you don't like the flavor or cannot find any, feel free to omit it.
What kind of sugar should I use to make sweet dessert soup?
Cantonese cuisine is famous for its dessert soups, or tong sui. It's typically sweetened with 片糖, or slab sugar. It's a rock sugar that has a strong molasses flavor. The other common sweetener is rock sugar and brown sugar. The molasses in the brown sugar stands in for the molasses of the slab sugar.
You can buy rock sugar on Amazon here, or slab sugar here!
If you don't have any of these, white granulated sugar will work just as well!
Just don't use confectioner's or powdered sugar. They usually have cornstarch mixed in as an anti-clumping agent, so it's easy to mess up the texture if you use powdered sugar.
How do you prevent red bean soup from sticking to the pot?
Sticking to the pot is most commonly a result of inadequate water. Just make sure that your pot is not drying out! You can add water during the cooking process if you see too much water cooking out. However, if you're boiling the soup with the lid on, as we do, there shouldn't be much water loss.
How do you make sweet red bean soup thicker and heartier?
The thickness of the soup relies a lot on soften beans. Make sure they've soaked for long enough—you can soak them overnight! You can also simmer them for longer to make sure they get really tender. Then, you'll be able to mash and crush them to make a nice, "sandy" soup.
How do you store leftover sweet red bean soup?
Store leftover soup in the refrigerator. You can eat it cold next time, or reheat it in the microwave or on the stovetop.
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Made with love ❤️
We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.
Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.