Adzuki bean soup with lotus seeds & aged tangerine peel
Thick, velvety red bean soup scented with aged tangerine peel, with soft lotus seeds and little sugar — a warm Grain Rain classic.
- 1 hr 30 min
- Serves 3
- Simmer
- Easy
Why it suits you: A Balanced constitution simply follows the season. Grain Rain is wet and humid, which can leave you heavy and off your food; a low-sugar red bean soup strengthens digestion and clears damp, eaten warm rather than as an iced drink, ready for summer.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 80 min- 1Rinse the beans and soak for 2 hours (or overnight). Rinse the lotus seeds. Soak the tangerine peel until soft and scrape off a little of the white pith.
- 2Put the beans, lotus seeds and peel in 1.3 litres of water, bring to the boil, then cover and simmer gently for 1 hour 15 minutes, stirring now and then so nothing sticks.
- 3When the beans have burst and turned creamy, stir in the sugar until dissolved. If it is too thin, simmer uncovered for 5 more minutes.
- 4Eat it hot, or pour into a flask for a warm afternoon bowl at the office.
Cautions
- Watching your blood sugar? Halve the sugar or leave it out, and count the beans as a carbohydrate portion.
Chef's tips
- Freeze the soaked, drained beans overnight and they break down faster. A thermal cooker or pressure cooker also works.
The TCM view
Adzuki beans are sweet, sour and neutral; they drain water and damp and support the spleen. Lotus seeds are sweet, astringent and neutral and steady digestion and the heart. Aged tangerine peel is pungent, bitter and warm, moves qi and dries damp so the soup is fragrant, not cloying; a little slab sugar is sweet and warm. Neutral overall, it clears damp without depleting you.
