Red bean soup with tangerine peel (陳皮紅豆沙)
Adzuki beans simmered with dried tangerine peel until they break down into a thick, fragrant sweet soup — a Cantonese dessert-shop favourite.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 2 hr
- Serves
- 6
Method
- 1
Soak the beans in cold water for 2 to 4 hours, then drain. Soak the tangerine peel for 20 minutes and scrape off the white pith.
- 2
Boil. Bring the water to the boil, add the beans and tangerine peel and boil hard for 10 minutes.
- 3
Simmer with the lid slightly open for 1½ to 2 hours, stirring now and then, until the beans burst and the soup turns thick and slightly grainy (起沙). Add a little water if it gets too thick.
- 4
Sweeten with the sugar, stir until it dissolves and serve warm.
About this dish
Red bean soup is one of the great Cantonese 糖水, and the dried tangerine peel gives it a fragrant, slightly bitter edge. It freezes well, so it's easy to make a big pot and freeze portions.
Tips
- Adzuki beans, not kidney beans. Use small red adzuki beans (紅豆) from a Chinese or health-food shop.
- Quicker 起沙: after soaking, freeze the drained beans overnight. Cooking them from frozen helps them break down faster — start the 10-minute hard boil once the water is back at a rolling boil.
- Using a slow cooker? Boil the soup hard on the hob for 15 minutes first: beans that aren't cooked properly can upset your stomach.
- Sugar: each bowl has about 13g of added sugar. Sweeten to taste rather than all at once.
- Leftovers: divide into smaller containers so they cool quickly, get them into the fridge within 1 to 2 hours, eat within 48 hours or freeze them, and reheat once, until steaming hot.
Sources
About these recipes
- These are traditional home recipes, shared for cultural interest. They are not medical or nutritional advice, and we don’t claim any dish treats, prevents or cures anything.
- If you have allergies, gestational diabetes or a special diet, or take any medicines or herbal remedies, check with your midwife, health visitor, GP or pharmacist before changing what you eat.
- Follow UK food-safety advice: cook meat, fish and eggs thoroughly; cool leftovers and get them into the fridge within 1 to 2 hours; eat them within 2 days; and reheat only once, until steaming hot.
- Some recipes contain alcohol, and cooking doesn’t remove all of it. If you’re breastfeeding, read our guide to ginger vinegar and chicken in rice wine first.
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