Che Dau Do, Vietnamese Red Bean Sweet Soup
Che covers a whole family of Vietnamese sweet soups and puddings, and che dau do, the red bean one, is among the plainest and most loved. The beans are cooked until they nearly dissolve, sweetened lightly, and served either steaming or poured over crushed ice. Dates replace the palm sugar and a spoonful of soy milk stands in for the coconut cream usually poured on top, which keeps the dish free of coconut without giving up its richness. It sweetens as it sits, so it is worth making a day ahead.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Adzuki beans, soaked overnight and drained
- 2 Pandan leafs, knotted
- 5 Medjool dates, pitted, 3 blended with water into a paste and 2 chopped
- 1/2 cup Unsweetened soy milk
- 1 tbsp Sesame seeds, toasted
Method
- Put the soaked adzuki beans and the pandan knot in a pot with about 5 cups (1.2 L) water. Simmer, partly covered, for 50 to 60 minutes, topping up the water as needed, until the beans are creamy-soft and starting to break. Cook them plain first, because adding any sweetener before they soften keeps the skins tough.
- Stir in the blended date paste and the chopped dates and simmer another 10 minutes. The chopped pieces melt down slowly and leave little pockets of caramel, standing in for the palm sugar the classic leans on.
- Mash a ladleful of beans against the side of the pot and stir it back in. That gives the soup its slightly thick, cloudy body without any starch or coconut milk.
- Fish out the pandan. Serve warm in cold weather or over ice in hot, finishing each bowl with a swirl of soy milk and a pinch of sesame. The soy milk is the richness that coconut cream would otherwise add.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 215 calories, 9 g protein, 9 g fiber, 25 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
