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Hong dou tang is a category of tong sui, or sweet Chinese soups. This one has sweet red beans, and unfilled tong yuen (think chewy mochi balls!).

Hong Dou Tang

Hong dou tang, or sweet red bean soup, is a home-y Cantonese dessert soup. This one is served with unfilled tong yuen, or chewy mochi balls.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Cantonese, Chinese
Keyword beans, brown sugar, dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, hong dau tang, mochi, nut-free, red beans, soup, sweet rice flour, tong sui, tong yuen, vegan, vegetarian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings 8 people
Calories 276 kcal

Ingredients

  • ½ cup red beans
  • 1 cup sweet rice flour
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • milk or cream to serve

Instructions

  1. In a large pot over medium heat, add the red beans and 8 cups of water. Let simmer for 2-2.5 hours, or until some of the beans are broken down. I like some of them whole, but you can let the beans cook longer if you like them more broken down.
  2. While the soup is cooking, mix the rice flour with 7 T warm water until the mixture is homogeneous; it may be a little dry, but you'd rather it be too dry than too wet.
  3. Split the dough in half, and roll each half into a log, then cut each log into 40 pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth ball (you may need to massage the dough a little bit to get it to stick together). You may be tempted to skip the ball forming step, but this will make sure the dough doesn't fall apart in the soup later.
  4. Once the beans are done to your desired consistency, add the tong yuen. Stir to make sure the tong yuen don't stick together. Once the tong yuen float to the top of the soup, 3-5 minutes, they'r ready!
  5. Serve the hong dou tang, making sure to spoon some beans and some tong yuen into each serving. You can add a splash of milk or cream to make it creamier, if you'd like.

Recipe Notes

Tong yuen from Chinese Snacks by Huang Su Huei.

This can be made ahead - just make sure that you heat up the hong dou tang enough so that the tong yuen are soft again.