Red Bean Soup

If you've been to a Chinese restaurant, you'd know that they're not big on desserts. And if you've been to a traditional (not Americanized) Chinese restaurant, there are no fortune cookies after a meal. Most likely, the choice of dessert is either fruit or red bean soup.

Above, my mother's red bean soup

Well, I grew up with red bean soup. It's a delicious sweet dessert made with azuki beans, lotus seeds, dried tangerine peel, rock sugar and some times sago (they look like little transparent pearls, similar to tapioca). It's almost always served warm in restaurants, but is also excellent when served cold. The sign of a good red bean soup is soft & tender beans and a nice texture to the liquid itself - if made just right, the soup should 出沙 (loosely translated as having texture of soft "sand"...like velvety sand if there's such a thing).

Anyhow, if you're not a big fan of sweet soups for dessert, you can try making these into popsicles. I loved doing this when I was little whenever my mom made red bean soup. It was so fun to have in the summer. I have yet to try making red bean soup, but will definitely take a stab at this traditional dessert some time.