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Sweet Red Bean Porridge

One Soup to win them all, One Soup to heal them, One Soup to bring them all and in the sweetness soothe them ;) It's a main, a soup, a porridge, and a dessert! It's the Korean-style sweet red bean porridge.

This one really is a superstar of a porridge, with its high protein and low fat content, creamy and velvety texture, and a gorgeous blend of earthiness and sweetness. It's such a comforting course for any chilly winter day and also perfect for soothing ailments as it's both nutritious and very easy on the stomach.

For serving, the traditional way is to add sweet rice cake balls, but I was feeling a little too lazy to make those after making the soup so I went with steamed sweet potatoes, steamed purple potatoes, and cooked lotus seeds and goji berries, adding immune-boosting superpower on top of the deliciousness! 


INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Dry Red Beans

1 tablespoon Rice Flour

2 tablespoon Honey or Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Salt

Toppings of choice


TO MAKE:

- Soak the beans overnight or for 2 hours at least;
- In a large pot, add the beans with 4 cups of water, bring it to a boil, uncovered, then reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer for 5 minutes;
- Drain the beans, discard the water, return the beans to the pot with 4 cups of freshwater, bring to a boil again uncovered;
- Cover, and simmer over medium-low heat until the beans are very soft and easily breakable, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours;
- Use a hand blender or a regular blender to puree the beans along with the cooking liquid until velvety smooth, you can do this step in batches if needed and if the mixture gets too thick, add a little more water;
- Return the bean puree to the pot, stir in the rice flour, salt, and sweetener of choice, taste to adjust to your preferred sweetness;
- Simmer over medium-low heat for about 10 more minutes, stir frequently to prevent the bottom from burning, turn off the heat when you reach the preferred consistency;
- Add toppings and enjoy!

TIPS:

1. If you have a rice cooker, I highly recommend you use it to cook the dry beans. It makes the process much easier! Soak the beans the same way, and cook the beans (1 cup dry beans, 4 cups water) with the steamed rice program, drain and discard the water, then cook the beans a second time with the same program.
2. When the beans are boiling, add a steam drawer on top of the pot to steam sweet potatoes or other toppings that require steaming! It's a big time saver. 


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