Mung bean & lily bulb sweet soup
Mung beans simmered until they burst, with crisp fresh lily bulb — cooling, calming and only lightly sweet.
- 1 hr
- Serves 4
- Simmer
- Easy
Why it suits you: A Balanced constitution simply follows the season. Start of Summer turns hot and humid: mung beans clear summer heat and lily bulb calms the heart, so a warm bowl in the afternoon cools you down without being too cold.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 50 min- 1Rinse the mung beans and soak for 2 hours (or overnight). Soak the tangerine peel until soft and scrape off the white pith.
- 2Drain the beans and bring them to the boil with the peel and 1.5 litres of water. Simmer over medium-low heat for 45 minutes, stirring now and then, until the beans burst and turn sandy.
- 3Separate the lily bulb into petals, rinse and trim any brown edges, then cook in the soup for 5 minutes until translucent.
- 4Stir in the sugar until dissolved and taste. Pour into a flask for the office and drink warm or at room temperature in the afternoon.
Cautions
- Go easy if your digestion runs cold or you get loose stools; traditionally, mung beans are also kept to a minimum while taking Chinese herbal medicine.
Chef's tips
- Soaking the beans overnight helps them turn sandy faster; the rice cooker's soup setting for about 1 hour also works.
The TCM view
Mung beans are sweet and cold; they clear heat, relieve summer heat and drain water. Lily bulb is sweet and slightly cold, calming the heart and spirit and moistening the lungs. Aged tangerine peel is pungent, bitter and warm, moving qi and offsetting the beans' coldness, and a little slab sugar adds warmth. Cooling but kind to the stomach — right for nourishing the heart and clearing summer heat.
