Sweet Green (Mung) Bean Soup

From: jerr

On Oct 30, 2004

From: Romi

On May 25, 2004

This is the kind of recipe that you can play around with to get the taste to your liking. The recipe says to simmer mung beans for a total of 30 mins. I found that I had to boil them at a higher temperature much longer to get them soft. Also, I used vanilla instead of pandan leaves. I boiled the beans together with the sugar and vanilla. When serving I put a small portion of beans in a bowl, barely coating them with water and added about a tablespoon of the coconut milk. Then I added a little more sugar, tasting as I went along to get the sweetness right. With a little tweaking this recipe came out great. Next time I will try the pandan leaves or tamarind paste to get a more exotic flavor. The recipe says to serve the soup hot, but I\'ve tried it both ways and I prefer it cold. If you prefer oriental-style desserts, which are less sweet with more subtle flavor, then you will love this recipe.

From: mianbao

On May 13, 2004

Thank you for an interesting recipe. I had never cooked mung beans before, and was quite surprised at how quickly they cooked. I did add the sugar to taste, and used about 1 tablespoon less. I didn't have pandan leaves, but used 2 drops pure pandan oil. (The oil is very strong, so I was being careful. 3 drops may have been all right, too.) After sampling the soup, I decided I wanted something a little more substantial, so increased the dry coconut milk to 3 tablespoons, and also added 2 tablespoons dry skim milk to add more flavor. I may experiment with sweetened condensed milk next time. I intend to serve this chilled. BTW, I think that it would be possible to get 4 to 5 servings from this.