• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

China Sichuan Food

Chinese Recipes and Eating Culture

  • Recipes
    • All Time Popular
    • Sichuan Food
    • Staple| Rice|Noodles
    • Pork
    • Beef & Lamb
    • Chicken & Poultry
    • Fish & Seafood
    • Egg & Dairy
    • Salad & Cold dishes
    • Beverages & Tea
    • Dessert
    • Soup
    • Vegan
    • Vegetarian
  • Pantry
  • Blog
  • About
    • PRIVACY POLICY
  • Video
  • How to
  • Hot Pot
    • Chinese Hot Pot e-Cookbook

Mung Bean Cake (Mung Bean Paste)

May 29, 2016 45 Comments

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Mung bean cake (lvdougao) is a traditional and popular Chinese dessert in summer. The main ingredient, mung beans or sometimes called as green mung bean is a common and daily ingredient in Chinese cooking. In traditional Chinese medicine, those little green beans have a cold property, which can further help to protect our body from hot temperature in summer.Personally, I love various recipes made with mung beans or related ingredients. For example, in Sichuan province, there is famous Liangfen made with Mung bean starch. And there is a national glass noodle—mung bean noodles. I have made two versions this time. One batch of the cakes are custard yellow while the other batch is matcha green( reproduce the green color of the cake).

Mung bean cake

Many varieties of mung bean cake are available in China from taste,  from color to shape. But in general, they are shaped by different cake moulds like mooncake moulds. For a smoother and fine taste, it is important to use unshelled green beans. Unshelled green beans are easy to find in baking ingredient store in China. You may try to search it in Asian stores, sometimes they are named as yellow mung beans (spilt mung beans). Another option is to pre-soak the green mung beans and peel by hand. But it is a really hard task requires patience and time. I have tried one time and do not recommend you doing this.

Pre-soak the yellow mung beans overnight. Rinse and dry.

mung bean cake steps

In a high pressure cooker, add clean water to slightly cover (3-4 cm higher) the beans and cook for a bean (or meat) procedure until the mung beans are easy to smash.

Mung bean cake

Then smash the mung bean until fine and smooth. It is quite easy when they are well cooked.

Mung bean cake

Transfer the mung bean into a pan, add butter and vegetable oil and keep frying over medium  slow fire.

Mung bean cake

Add sugar when the oil is well absorbed.

Mung bean cake

Continue frying over slow fire until the mixture can be easily shaped into a paste. Divide the mixture into two equal portions and transfer one portion out.

Mung bean cake

Add around 5-8g matcha powder for coloring.

Mung bean cake

Mix well.

Mung bean cake

Transfer the mixture into a strainer and then press with a spatula. You may ask help in this step or consider this as a way of body exercise. This will give your mung bean cake a super smooth taste.

Mung bean cake

Mung bean cake

And then divide the mixture into small portions around 30g-40g. If you want them to share similar size, use a kitchen scale to weight each portion or resort to a scoop. I wrap some of them with 10g red bean paste. But this step is optional.

Mung bean cake

Then shape it with a mooncake mould.   I am using this one :New Moon Cake Decoration Mold mould 50g & flowers Round 4 stamps DIY Tool. For tips about how to use this tool, you can check the video in snow skin mooncakes.

Mung bean cake

All the mung bean cakes need to be kept in small air-tight packages after cool down completely. They can be kept for around 1 week.

Mung bean cake

5 from 5 votes
Print
Mung Bean Cake
Prep Time
1 d
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 d 1 hr
 
Chinese dessert mung bean cake is a perfect dessert in hot summer. Only natural ingredients are used.
Course: sauce
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: Mung Bean
Calories: 405 kcal
Author: Elaine
Ingredients
  • 250 g yellow mung beans ,unshelled mung beans
  • 40 g butter
  • 50 g vegetable oil
  • 110 g sugar or more if needed ,you can slightly adjust this amount
  • a small pinch of salt
Coloring
  • 5-8 g matcha powder I use 5g
Instructions
  1. Pre-soak the yellow mung beans overnight. Rinse and dry in the next day.
  2. In a high pressure cooker, add clean water to slightly cover the mung beans and cook with a bean procedure until the beans are soft and easy to smash. Then smash them with a spatula until a smooth and fine mixture. Transfer it to a non-stick pan.

  3. Add pinch of salt, butter and vegetable oil to the mung bean mixture. Heat over medium slow fine and keep stirring in the process. Add sugar when the oil is well absorbed. Keep stirring until they can sticky together easily. Turn off the fire.
Optional for coloring
  1. Divide the dough into two equal portions and then transfer one portion out. Add around 5-8g matcha powder to the another portion and mix well.
Straining and Shaping
  1. Then transfer the mixture to a strain and press them with a spatula. You will see then come out from the small holes. This step can provide a super smooth and fine texture.
  2. Divide the mixture into smaller doughs around 30g to 40g and then wrap 10 filling if you prefer to have some. Shape with a mooncake mould or any other mould you prefer. You need to operate this step when the mixture is not hot but still warm.
Recipe Notes

How to keep: wrap with plastic wrap and store in fridge up for 1 week.

You can also use this directly as a mung bean filling for mooncakes.

For vegan readers, you can skip butter and replace it with vegetable cooking oil.

Nutrition Facts
Mung Bean Cake
Amount Per Serving (100 g)
Calories 405 Calories from Fat 151
% Daily Value*
Fat 16.8g26%
Saturated Fat 6.1g38%
Cholesterol 17mg6%
Sodium 439mg19%
Potassium 29mg1%
Carbohydrates 51g17%
Fiber 12.5g52%
Sugar 22g24%
Protein 14.1g28%
Calcium 20mg2%
Iron 2.5mg14%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Mung bean cake

For all sweet teeth!

mung bean cake

mung bean cake-6

Filed Under: dessert and bakery, Featured, Recipes

« Mini Sweet Bean Paste Buns
Steamed Scallion Buns-Hua Juan »

You may also like

Easy Chinese Scallion Pancake

Easy Scallion Pancakes, From Batter Directly

homemade noodles

Homemade Handmade Noodles

homestyle mei fun | chinasichuanfood.com

Homestyle Mai Fun

Comments

    Leave a Reply to Onlawan Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *






    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Sherlyn says

    October 1, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    Hi, can i use normal pot to cook instead of high pressure cooker?

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      October 3, 2020 at 8:08 am

      Yes, but you need more water since longer time needed and more water evaporation.

      Reply
« Older Comments

Hi, Welcome!

Please not be limited by site name, as Elaine shares Chinese recipes beyond Sichuan dishes. Know me more from About Page

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe for Updates

Most Popular

Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup

Chinese chicken noodle soup| chinasichuanfood.com

Chinese Beef Noodle Soup

Chinese beef noodle soup

Chinese Chili Oil

Chinese chili oil

Chinese Pantry

Chinese chili oil|chinasichuanfood.com

How to Make Chinese Red Oil from Scratch

steamed chicken with black bean sauce|chinasichuanfood.com

Steamed Chicken with Black Bean Sauce

Pickled Vegetable Sichuan Style

Chinese aromatics|chinasichuanfood.com

An Introduction to Chinese Vegetables: Allium, Aromatics and Peppers

ChinaSichuanFood.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use only images without prior permission. 图片和文字未经授权,禁止转载和使用。

Copyright © 2021 · Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in