Che Dau Den (Black Bean Soup with Tapioca Pearls), Sweetened with Monk Fruit
Sweets and drinksSweet SoupsVietnamAbout 1 hour 30 minutes, not counting the soaking time
Che dau den with tapioca pearls and coconut milk gives beans that are soft and nutty while still holding their shape. The difficulty is the soaking, since too few hours leaves a hard core in the bean. The tapioca pearls have to be kneaded with boiling water to turn chewy.
The beans cook 30 minutes and then rest off the heat another 30, which brings them to tender without splitting. The cooking liquid is drained off separately and the beans cooked with the sweetener for 10 minutes before the liquid goes back in.
This batch weighs about 3.1kg, at roughly 86 calories per 100g.
Method
Wash 300 g of black beans and soak them at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. The soaking water should be three times the volume of the beans, as they swell a lot.
Rinse the beans again and pick out any empty ones. Put them in a pot with 2 litres of water, bring to a hard boil and skim the foam often. Once boiling, lower to medium and cook another 30 minutes, then take it off the heat, cover and rest for 30 minutes.
Make the pearls: put 150 g of tapioca starch in a bowl, pour in 100 to 120 ml of boiling water slowly and stir with a spoon. Once it cools a little, knead by hand into a smooth, pliable mass, which is right when it stretches without breaking.
Roll the dough to about 6 to 7 mm thick, cut it into long strips, then cut those into small squares and dust them with dry starch so they do not stick together.
Bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the pearls until they turn translucent and float, then lift them into a bowl of ice water.
Drain the bean cooking liquid off separately. Put the beans in a pot with 260 g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and cook over medium low heat for about 10 minutes so they take up the sweetness without breaking up.
Pour the bean cooking liquid back into the pot, stir and bring it to a hard boil, adding a third of a teaspoon of salt. Once it boils again, add the cooked pearls. For a slightly thicker soup, mix 1 teaspoon of tapioca starch with 2 tablespoons of water, pour it in slowly and stir, then take the pot off the heat once it boils and add a little vanilla.
Cook the coconut milk: put 300 ml of coconut milk in a pot with a little water, 1 teaspoon of tapioca starch, the remaining 10 g of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, a quarter teaspoon of salt and 4 to 5 pandan leaves. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to the boil.
Ladle into glasses, pour the coconut milk over and scatter on shredded coconut or crushed roasted peanuts.
Tips
Cooking the beans with the sweetener before the liquid goes back in is what carries the sweetness into the bean rather than leaving it chalky.
The 30 minute rest off the heat brings the beans to tender while keeping them whole.
Skimming the foam constantly as the bean water first boils matters, since skipping it leaves the pot cloudy and raw smelling.
The tapioca starch is kneaded while still very hot, as a fully cooled mass crumbles apart.
The pearls go straight into ice water after boiling, which is what makes them chewy and keeps them separate.
Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?
The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.