Red Bean And Barley Soup (1)

Red Bean Barley Soup(红豆薏米水 or 薏米红豆水 is the same) is a drink and belongs to Chinese Tong sui (sugar water). It is made by red bean and barley. This soup has many benefits to our body. For example it can reduce swelling and clearing damp from our body. Otherwise, recently most people use it to help them lose weight. So we want to provide a detailed guide to this soup for you, Hope you like it. You also can watch the video guide below.

Firstly, We would like to clarify that the red bean is not the red bean that we know. In traditional Chinese medicine, red bean is vigna umbellata(赤小豆) which has the medicinal virtues. We provide the difference in FAQ part and buy link in our recipe to help you find it on Amazon. You can jump to the end to see it. But for convenience, we still use the “read bean” on behalf of vigna umbellata below.

Red bean is not the red bean that we know

How To Make Red Bean Barley Soup

Step 1: Wash And Immerse Red Bean

Wash 100g red bean and then use the water immerse them 5 hours.

Wash And Immerse Red Bean

Step 2: Wash And Immerse Barley

Wash 100g barley and then use the water immerse them 5 hours. If we don’t immerse the red bean and barley enough time, they are difficult to boil soft. Ensure that you have immersed them enough. We recommend that you immerse the red bean and barley one day in advance. For example, if we want to cook this soup tomorrow, we should immerse the two ingredients tonight.

Wash And Immerse Barley

Step 3: Fry Barley(Optional)

If we want to clear the cold thing from the barley, we should fry barley. After it immerses enough time, pour them into the pan and fry it. The pan is hot and don’t need to add oil. Use the small fire to stir and fry without stopping. After you can see barley turn golden yellow, it means it fry enough. We don’t fry it in this recipe.

Fry Barley(Optional)

When most people cook red bean and barley soup, they put the ingredients directly in the pan and stew that can save this step.But according to traditional Chinese medicine statement, barley is a bit cold food. If you cook it directly without frying, it will make your body’s moisture become heavier. So we recommend you to fry barley and have healthier benefits to our body.

Step 4: Cook Red Bean And Barley Soup

Pour the red bean and barley into the rice cooker, then add 2000 ml water into the cooker. Cooking them at least 2 hours. Please don’t use the pan or other open-type devices to cook this soup. It will be easy to vaporize all of the water. You can use the seal type device, like the pressure cooker.

Cook Red Bean And Barley Soup

We like the washy soup. If you don’t like it, you can reduce the water to 1000 ml water. But trust me, the washy soup will be better. Because most people like this type and it can make sure every bowl of soup has enough water.

Step 5: Add Sugar

After 2 hours, add 8 tablespoons brown sugar into the rice cooker and stir the soup enough. If you like more sugar, you can add more sugar.

Add Sugar

That’s it. The red bean and barley soup has been done. Enjoy it now.

Red Bean And Barley Soup

Tips About Red Bean And Barley Soup

1. Please add enough water into the cooker, not so the soup is easy to boil dry

2. Cook this soup at least 2 hours, the red bean and barley are hard to boil soft. More cooking time will be better.

3. According to Chinese medicine theories, the pregnant woman cannot eat this soup.

FAQ About This Recipe

What Is This Soup Benefit?

This soup has many benefit to our body. For example, it has less calorie and can be use for lose weight. It is rich in vitamin E and potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, selenium and other active ingredients that can help clearing heat and detoxification from our body.

Can Red Bean Soup Be Kept Overnight?

Yes, you can keep it overnight if the weather is not hot. But it’s better to seal and store it in the refrigerator.

Is Red Bean Barley Soup For Weight Loss?

Yes, it is. There are three reasons why it can help us weight loss. Firstly, it can increase the feeling of fullness when we eat it. Because red bean and barley are the whole grain foods and have high fiber, low fat characteristics. But we don’t recommend you eat it on an empty stomach. It’s better to cook them with some rice. We should insist to eat it then can help us weight loss. Second, according to traditional Chinese medicine, if our body’s moisture is overweight, it will cause our body’s organs to appear some impedimental reaction. For example, it can cause indigestion that will make us to gain weight. But if you eat this soup, it can help you solve those problems. Finally, the barley is not only a common food ingredient but also a kind of traditional Chinese medicine which can promote intestinal peristalsis.

But the soup was unfit for some people with deficiency of spleen and stomach. We don’t recommend you insist eat it after haveing some uncomfortable condition on your body.

Is Barley Soup Fattening?

It depends on how much sugar you add to the soup. We know that sugar is easy to make us fattening. If you want more healthy, we recommend that you add less sugar.

That’s our detailed guide for Chinese red bean and barley soup recipe. You can try this at home. If you have any problem when you cook this, please let me know. We also have many Chinese or asian barley recipes in our website, you can search them on our website or try this.

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