Five-Color Bean and Dried Tangerine Peel Soup

Why people make this soup

In Chinese medicine and food therapy, colour carries meaning: red is associated with the heart, white with the lungs, green (or black) with the liver, yellow with the spleen, and black with the kidneys. By eating a wide range of naturally coloured whole foods, the thinking goes, you cover more nutritional ground and support the body’s different systems at once.

Nourilo came across a small grain shop one day — the kind that carries every imaginable variety of rice, wheat, and bean in open sacks — and picked up a beautiful selection of beans including the large, speckled “flower bean” (cranberry bean / borlotti type), which he particularly noted for its richness in vitamins and minerals, and its traditional association with strengthening the spleen and kidneys. He combined five varieties in a pot with chen pi, and found it made a satisfying, everyday-style nourishing soup — good for the whole family.

Method

1. Place all five bean varieties in a bowl, cover with cold water, and soak for 1 to 2 hours. Drain and discard the soaking water.
2. Soak the chen pi in cold water until soft (about 10 minutes), then cut into strips.
3. Place all the beans and chen pi in a pot. Add 2.4 L of water.
4. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a medium-low simmer.
5. Cook for approximately 1.5 hours, until all the beans are soft and the soup is fragrant.
6. Serve as is — this soup works both plain (as a savoury-mild drink) or lightly salted as a side dish. The beans can be eaten too.

Nourilo’s Tips

• The soup is naturally mild and slightly sweet — it can be eaten plain or with a little salt. Old and young alike can enjoy it.
• Always soak beans before cooking: soaking reduces cooking time and helps reduce gas production in the digestive tract. Discarding the soaking water also helps.
• Adding chen pi is important — it significantly reduces the gassy, bloating effect of beans.
• Red kidney beans or adzuki beans can be swapped in if some of the above varieties are unavailable. Adzuki beans (chi xiao dou) have a particularly strong damp-clearing effect.
• People with gout should not eat this soup.