Have you ever tried this melt-in-mouth, cold jelly noodle made from mung bean starch or fresh mung beans? It has several names including Liangfen and Chinese jelly noodles. The Chinese name 凉粉 means cold noodles. It is one type of Jelly noodle that is quite popular in the western part of China.
Liangfen can be made with starch, pea starch, sweet potato starch, or mung bean starch. In today’s recipe, I amusing mung bean to make mung bean jelly noodles. They are crystal, smooth, and cool.
Heartbreaking Jelly Noodles
There is a famous dish in Sichuan province named Beichuan Liangfen (heartbreaking jelly noodles). It is featured by the spicy taste. If you feel sad or heartbreaking, go and taste it, then your sadness will go with the wind since it is too spicy so that all the feeling you have is a spicy taste. In addition to an easy Sichuan-style dressing jelly noodle salad, those jelly noodles can be also stir-fried. Fried jelly noodle is a famous street food.
Two ways of making mung bean jelly noodles
We provide two ways of making mung bean jelly noodles, either from mung bean starch or from mung bean directly.
- If you have mung bean starch, it is super easy to make jelly noodles. It will be white, transparent in color.
- In any case that mung bean starch is hard to find, you can use fresh mung beans to make the jelly. Soak the beans and then blended them with water to get the colored starch water. The jelly noodle made with mung bean has a lovely green color that can be super appealing in summer.
Water and starch ratio
My favorite ratio of jelly noodles is 1:9 (starch vs water, weight ratio). But it can succeed with small adjustments. But you need to add at least 8 portions of water or 10 portions of water at most for each portion of starch. The more water you add, the more tender the jelly noodle can be.
You can also use roasted chili pepper sauce (烧椒汁) in the bok choy soup.
Instructions
Make the starch and water mixture from fresh mung beans
Soak the mung beans in cold water for at least 4 hours. On summer days, place it in the fridge.
Then add water and blend until very smooth. Use a very fine cloth to remove the pulps and get the start water only. You can add more water to further wash the pulp to get more starch. Let the mixture stand for around 2 hours until the starch is settled (in the fridge on summer days).
Then carefully pour the water above off because we need to measure for the next step.
Next, measure 800ml water from the previous step, and add salt, and baking soda. Mix well.
Make the mixture with mung bean starch
In a large bowl, mung bean starch with water.
Heat
Then pour the mixture into a large sauce pot or wok, and heat until it gets a consistency jelly-like texture. Don’t let the mixture boil because it may bring small bubbles inside the jelly. The process of using mung bean starch is the same, but you will get a white transparent texture.
Transfer out to a round or rectangular container, and cool down completely.
Then cut into small strips. Mix well with the salad dressing.
What to serve with
- Mung bean noodles can be served with any type of main course dishes like Hong Shao Rou, and Mapo tofu.
- Another popular way is to serve with congee as a quick meal.
- You can also enjoy it as a street snack.
Storage Tips
If possible, eat them within 1 day. Those jelly noodles go bad very quickly in summer.
Mung bean jelly noodles
Ingredients
Mixture with mung bean starch
- 1 cup Mung bean starch ,around 120g
- 4.5 cup water ,divided
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. baking soda , help to hold the color. Optional.
Mixture with mung beans
- 1 and 1/4 cup mung beans
- 800 ml water
- Water for blending and washing
Sauce
- 2 tbsp. Szechuan style chili oil
- 2 tbsp. black vinegar
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
- ½ tsp. sugar
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. Sichuan peppercorn powder or oil ,optional
- 2 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 2 garlic cloves ,minced
- 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp. minced green onion
Instructions
Version with fresh mung beans
- Soak the mung beans in cold water for at least 4 hours. On summer days, place it in the fridge.
- Then add water and blend until very smooth. Use a very fine cloth to remove the pulps and get the start water only. In order to make more starch, wash the pulp with some extra water. Let the mixture stay for around 2 hours until the starch is settled (in the fridge on summer days).
- Then carefully pour the water above off because we need to measure for the next step.
- Next, measure 800ml water from the previous step, and add salt, and baking soda. Mix well.
Version with mung bean starch
- In a large bowl, mung bean starch with water.
Heat the mixture
- Then pour the mixture into a large sauce pot or wok, and heat until it gets a consistency jelly-like texture. Don't let the mixture boil because it may bring small bubbles inside the jelly. The process of using mung bean starch is the same, but you will get a white transparent texture.
Cool down
- Transfer out to a round or rectangular container, and cool down completely.
Assbmle
- In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients expect scallions.
- Then cut into small strips. Mix well with the salad dressing. Top with scallions or coriander.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
looks delicious! my chinese grandfather makes a dish similar to this.. brings back some childhood memories!
Me too Thalia. My grandmother always makes those noodles in summer days. And this is one of my favorite summer cold dish.
Can corn starch be used instead of mung bean starch?
Hi Angela,
You can use corn starch to make this jelly noodles yummy too. But the taste might be slightly different. Mostly, Mung bean starch and pea starch are used for a more stretchy texture.
I did try it with cornstarch and the consistency was too soft and not at all noodle like. The taste was not too bad but will definitely try again with mung bean starch. Thanks!
Angela, thanks for the feedback. I will test with cornstarch later on.
This dish looks both beautiful and delicious. I have a soft spot in my heart for asian noodles of any kind, but Sichuan cooking is one of my favorites. I can’t wait to try these since I always want to make hand-made noodles.
Wow,
Hand-made noodles are so great! I love to make some from time to time at home too.
Mung bean noodles are my favourite. Not only do these look delicious but super easy. I will deffo have to make them!
They are my favorite too especially in summer days. I have such rich and warm memories about this noodles during my time with my grand mother.
What’s the ratio of mung bean starch to water? I bought mung bean starch from a korean market, but the directions are all in korean and I don’t speak korean. How much water should I use to mix the mung bean starch with?
Hi Lynn,
It depends on how you want to use the mung bean starch. For jelly noodles, the ratio of mung bean starch and water should be 1:6. For coating or other usages, usually I would recommend a 1:1 ratio, but also differ from how thick you want to sauce to be.
can i fry up these noodles(i dont like cold) and will thy hold up in taste? thank you for easy recipe
Hi there,
Yes, liangfen can be stirred fried. You can use similar sauce and add some spice powder will light it up. Good luck!
Hi, I have tried many types of starch which includes corn starch, potato starch and mung bean starch and the ratio is 1:6 to make Liangfen noodles as according to the steps as directed and keep in refrigerator for 1 hour and sometimes even longer but the result wasn’t good as expected because it was very soft and easily broken into pieces. Why, can you give me some advice. Thank you
Hi Keith,
That’s my fault. The ratio should be the weight ratio but not volume ratio. I have already corrected the recipe. So you need to add more starch.
Thank you so much for this. I tried it with sweet potato starch, turn out well and nice. My wife is from China and she definitely miss this dish.
Thanks for the feedback, Roy. You mush be very luck to have a Chinese wife. She will lead you into the yummy Chinese food world. Happy cooking!
I tried to make these and weighed out all the ingredients correctly. I stirred the water together with the mung bean starch, let it sit for 15 minutes, then stirred it again to make sure it was smooth when I poured it into the boiling water, but when I poured it in it got clumpy. A good portion of it turned to the clear paste, but I couldn’t get rid of these hard clumps that formed. What am I doing wrong?
Jillian,
Your stirring speed is too slow after pouring the batter into boiling water, so part of the liquid is not smooth enough. What tool you were using?
I was using a wooden spoon the first time I tried to make them, and a whisk the second time.
Have you ever seen liangfen made from chickpea flour and then fried like tofu? I know they do this in some regions in China but can’t find a recipe anywhere. Thank you!
You are the most welcome!