Large sweet bean dish?

[morpheus]

I once had a Chinese dish in a restaurant that appeared to be made with fava beans (or some other large species). There were two or three flavors of beans. The beans were all separate (non-sticky) and a little sweet. They were served at room temperature. I can't seem to find out the name of that dish, much less the recipe for it. Does anyone remember seeing this?

[Melody Wang]

Hi, What you described is not quite precise that I can only try to guess according to my experience. Hope it helps.

Chinese people are used to having bean soup(Dou Tang, 豆汤) or bean paste（Dou Sha, 豆沙）, commonly with sweet flavour(by mixing with some white sugar)especially during Summer.

The most used beans to make such bean soup or bean paste are two kinds:

green beans(mung beans, Lv Dou, 绿豆)--According to Chinese physicians, have a 'cooling' effect(Qu Huo, 去火) on the body, so this is a very popular dish in summer.

Red beans(Adzuki beans, Hong Dou or Chi Dou, 红豆 or 赤豆)--Adzuki beans are beneficial to the kidney and usually cooked as a sweet dessert soup.

The recipe for making bean soup or bean paste is quite easy to handle. Some people prefer to make a mixture of beans and nuts. The following recipe I found in About.com is pretty precise and helpful. (The same as making mung bean soup)

Red Bean Soup Recipe

Adzuki or Mung bean paste is usually make by mixing the boiled beans with ice or icecream as a popular icy dessert in China.

[morpheus]

Maybe I left out something important. The beans themselves were not in a soup or crushed, but rather piled up on a plate. They were not cooked in syrup, but there was some sweet flavor like a little sugar had been added. They looked to be about 1.5 cm across, so I thought perhaps they were fava beans. Do you know anything like that?

[Melody Wang]

Based on your description, the beans you ate in China may be fava beans(Can Dou, 蚕豆) or green soybeans(Mao Dou, 毛豆).

It seems that the beans were not cooked as a dessert or soup, so the most possible cooking method is water boiling(To keep the original color and the natural flavour of the beans, so you can taste a little bit sweet). Compared with fava beans and green soybeans, the latter is more cooked by water-boiled(sometimes adding a little bit salt) while the former is used to be cooked with meat.

You may recognize it from its shape. So I suggest you to use the search engine by inputing the Chinese keywords I mentioned above.

[morpheus]

I think it probably was fava beans in that dish. Maybe boiling them with certain vegetables can give a different color to them. There were some that looked red, and some that looked yellow. I think there were green ones too. Thanks for the help!