Sweet Green Bean Pearl Dessert

If you’re looking for the perfect dessert- sweet, yet not too sweet, thick, yet not too gooey, delicious- well, very delicious, cease your search immediately for you have found it! Lek Tau Suan, Hokkien for ‘Green Bean Pearl Dessert’, is one that would definitely satisfy your craving for mouth-watering desserts. They present quite a unique sight- small, whole split mung beans suspended almost magically in a clear, thick liquid with a consistency similar to that of porridge- perhaps not something you would consider a conventionally appetising sight, but I’m sure you know better than to judge the flavour of this dish simply by their appearance.

To make this dish, you’ll have to purchase the mung beans (also known as green beans) without the skin, and slowly boil them. Patience is the key to obtaining perfectly boiled mung beans, as this has to be done at a slow pace to ensure the end result is beautifully soft, with just the right amount of ‘bite’ in them. Potato starch is an essential ingredient in this dish, its role being to produce that glassy smooth and thick texture of this dish. Pandan leaves, or screwpine leaves give an irresistible aroma to this dish, one that is bound to have your mouth watering before you even set your sights on this bowl of pleasure!

You’ll be glad to know that the excellent flavours of this dish is not the only thing that makes it so hard to resist. The main ingredient, mung beans, happen to be loaded with health benefits! High in dietary fibre and vitamins such as Vitamin C, Vitamin K and Vitamin B complex like riboflavin, thiamine, niacin and Vitamin B6, they are also said to aid in increasing your metabolism, making it the perfect ‘diet food’! If that can’t convince you to give this a try, I’m not sure what else will. Serve this dessert warm with some Chinese donuts for a brilliant mix of sweetness and saltiness, and be prepared to “blow your taste buds away”!

Sweet Green Bean Pearl Dessert (Lek Tau Suan)

Preparation time: approximately 1 hour

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Serves: 4

300g skinless mung beans, soaked in water for 1 hour

6 pandan leaves, knotted

150g sugar

1 litre water

80g sweet potato flour

1. Place soaked mung beans on a plate and steam over boiling water for 30 minutes

2. Add pandan leaves, sugar and water into a medium size pot and place over high heat for 10 minutes

3. Dissolve sweet potato flour with some water and slowly mix in together with ingredients in pot, stirring constantly