Monday, July 5, 2010
Food In Singapore 13: Red Bean Soup

In this post I will be talking about Red Bean Soup, a common desert in Singapore.

The Red Bean Soup
Red Bean Soup is an Asian Soup that is made with azuki beans.

In China, there is a thinner variation of this dish. It is served hot in the winter and served cold in the summer. Many other countries such as Korea and Japan also follow this pattern.

Red Bean Soup in the making
Red Bean Soup is a fairly easy soup to make. The ingredients needed are sagi seeds, dried red azuki seeds, and some rock sugar or brown sugar. Put red azuki seeds and the sugar in a pot and pour 8 – 10 cups of water together with the mixture (the more the amount of water put, the thinner the red bean soup will be). After around 1h 45mins of cooking, put the sagi seeds in. After around 15 mins, the soup will be ready to be served.



Dried tangerine peels can also be added into the soup before cooking so that the taste of the soup will be enhanced.

Personal Opinion
Red Bean Soup is a soup that is “fairly easy to make”, but it is difficult to master it. There are many factors involved, such as the thickness of the soup and the sweetness of the soup.

Personally, I prefer the soup to be sweet but not too sweet. As a desert, it must definitely be sweet and taste nice. However, if it is too sweet it will be disgusting and will overpower the taste of the red azuki seeds or the tangerine peels.



I will also like my soup to be not very thick. I feel that soup should always be watery and thus the soup should be thin. If it is too thick, the soup will become red bean paste. Furthermore, if the soup is too thick, elderly may not be able to enjoy the soup fully as the soup may be difficult to swallow.
However, a thin soup means that there will be a lot of water added, and thus means that the concentration of the taste will be compromised.

Lastly, I personally prefer my soup to have dried tangerine peels. This is because if the soup is done properly, you will be able to taste and smell the scent of the dried tangerine soup, and it really makes the soup nicer. Sadly, most of the hawkers in Singapore do not include dried tangerine peels in their soup, because some people may not like it and adding that means that they have to pay extra.

Food for Thought

Many people say that there are health benefits to drinking Red Bean Soup, such as “it boost your blood growth” and etc. Do you drink Red Bean Soup for the health benefits or purely because it taste nice?

Credits:
http://chowtimes.com/2006/06/04/red-bean-soup/
http://www.grampianspyreneespcp.org.au/Image/Agency%20Logos/Food%20For%20Thought%20Logo%20Reversed.jpg
http://www.hot-screensaver.com/wp-myimages/red-bean-soup.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2288/2107650025_c87e46419e.jpg