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    Home » Recipes » Chinese desserts

    Mung Bean Cake (Mung Bean Paste)

    Last Modified: October 10, 2022 by Elaine| 46 Comments

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    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

    Mung Bean Cake

    Elaine
    Chinese dessert mung bean cake is a perfect dessert in hot summer. Only natural ingredients are used.
    5 from 5 votes
    Print Recipe
    Prep Time 1 d
    Cook Time 1 hr
    Total Time 1 d 1 hr
    Course sauce
    Cuisine Chinese
    Calories 405 kcal

    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
     

    • Pre-soak the yellow mung beans overnight. Rinse and dry in the next day.
    • 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.
    • 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

    • 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

    • 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.
    • 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.

    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

    Serving: 100gCalories: 405kcalCarbohydrates: 51gProtein: 14.1gFat: 16.8gSaturated Fat: 6.1gCholesterol: 17mgSodium: 439mgPotassium: 29mgFiber: 12.5gSugar: 22gCalcium: 20mgIron: 2.5mg
    Keyword Mung Bean
    Tried this recipe?Mention @ChinaSichuanFood

    Mung bean cake

    For all sweet teeth!

    mung bean cake

    mung bean cake-6

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Cheryl

      August 31, 2017 at 9:34 pm

      5 stars
      Excellent recipe Elaine!

      I just have 2 questions:
      Can we do this with green mung beans? (as that's the only type available for me)
      And other than red bean paste what other types of filling can we use inside the cake?

      Thanks

      Reply
      • Elaine

        September 01, 2017 at 8:59 am

        Hi Cheryl,

        You can directly use green mung beans. They are with skins. But the cake cannot be so smooth as spilt mung beans. Removing the skins is a tough and time-consuming task.
        Besides red bean paste and mung bean paste, you can also use lotus seed paste (莲蓉馅) and milk yellow custard filling (奶黄馅).

        Reply
    2. jim huang

      September 12, 2017 at 9:39 pm

      5 stars
      My wife's childhood cake, I must try this one for her.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        September 13, 2017 at 8:34 am

        You are such a great husband!

        Reply
    3. Mary YEO

      December 28, 2017 at 10:41 am

      Hi! I bought readymade mung bean paste. Can these be eaten without steaming?
      Thanks!

      Reply
      • Elaine

        December 29, 2017 at 8:37 pm

        Sure.

        Reply
    4. Kim

      March 28, 2018 at 11:50 am

      hi elaine,

      would it be possible to use whole green mung beans instead of the split/skinned ones?

      thank you

      Reply
      • Elaine

        March 28, 2018 at 4:16 pm

        Yes, Kim. You can use whole green beans. It is healthier from split version. But the skins may cause some particle sensation.

        Reply
    5. Faez

      June 26, 2018 at 4:25 am

      5 stars
      Hey.
      Can you use mung bean flour for this, or would that not work?

      Reply
      • Elaine

        June 26, 2018 at 7:31 pm

        Hi Faez,
        I do not think mung bean flour is a good option for this cake because they have larger particle theoretically. But you can have a try with a very small batch and see how it works.

        Reply
    6. DONNA ENDRESEN

      December 29, 2018 at 4:25 pm

      My chinese friend made me mung bean cakes w/ red bean centers for Christmas. They are quite tasty . I will admit the first one took some time getting used to. I am glad to have been given the chance to try something new from her.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        December 29, 2018 at 6:52 pm

        Donna,
        I understand the adaptation of this cake. It is not enjoyed by everyone. But it is so good for me. Happy cooking and enjoy the home cooking.

        Reply
      • jay

        January 23, 2020 at 7:08 pm

        Hi Elaine,

        I‘m totally stoked to try out your recipe. Thank you very much for the detailed steps!
        Unfortunately I don’t own a pressure cooker, Is there any way to prepare the beans otherwise? I thought about steaming them directly in a sieve on top of a pot with little water. Or maybe even trying to cook them in my rice cooker.
        Do you have any idea how to process them without the pressure cooker?

        Reply
        • Elaine

          January 28, 2020 at 2:50 pm

          If you do not have a pressure cooker, soak the beans for a long time, and then double the cooking time either in rice cooker or regular cooker.

          Reply
    7. Onlawan

      January 19, 2019 at 11:43 am

      5 stars
      Hi Elaine
      ❤❤ Very nice recipe ❤❤
      I have some question. How many minutes to cook mung bean in a high pressure cooker?

      Reply
      • Elaine

        January 19, 2019 at 6:59 pm

        Thank you. The time is depending on the high pressure cooker. I recommend a longer time, around 40 minutes.

        Reply
    8. J

      August 26, 2019 at 4:40 pm

      Hi there, how many do these make per batch? Thank you!

      Reply
      • Elaine

        August 29, 2019 at 6:13 pm

        Depending on the size, for 25g each one, I make around 18 ones. I warp red bean paste too.

        Reply
    9. Edward Afford

      April 05, 2020 at 12:41 am

      Good morning, I was just taking a look at your site and submitted this message via your "contact us" form. The "contact us" page on your site sends you messages like this to your email account which is the reason you're reading through my message right now correct? This is the most important achievement with any kind of online ad, making people actually READ your ad and that's exactly what I just accomplished with you! If you have an ad message you would like to promote to thousands of websites via their contact forms in the US or to any country worldwide send me a quick note now, I can even focus on specific niches and my prices are very affordable. Write a reply here: [email protected]

      Reply
    10. Lorri Berger

      May 13, 2020 at 5:14 am

      When do you cook it? What temp? How long?
      Recipe says store after it cools down but doesn't tell how to cook the cake.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        May 13, 2020 at 8:31 am

        Lorri,
        No need to cook the cake, it can be served directly since the green beans are already cooked.

        Reply
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