Soups
Five-Color Bean and Dried Tangerine Peel Soup
traditionally used to nourish the five organs, support digestion, and promote overall vitality
In short: Five-Color Bean and Dried Tangerine Peel Soup is a soup that traditionally used to nourish the five organs, support digestion, and promote overall vitality. It is most often made for digestive wellness, energy & vitality, everyday balance. Total time about 105 min. Key ingredients: mung bean, tangerine peel.
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.
What studies say about the key ingredients
Traditional use is not the same as clinical proof. Here is the strongest human research we found for each ingredient, limitations included.
- Black soybeans
Systolic blood pressure fell more in the black soy peptide group (-9.69 mm Hg) than in the placebo group (-2.91 mm Hg) after baseline adjustment. Plasma malondialdehyde decreased and superoxide dismutase activity increased compared with placebo.Limitation: Used an isolated peptide supplement rather than whole black soybeans, and followed participants for only 8 weeks, so the results may not apply to food intake.PubMed 23924691 - Mung beans
Breath hydrogen and methane were higher after wheat than after rice or mung bean noodles. Bloating scores after mung bean did not differ significantly from wheat, and mung bean produced gas levels similar to rice.Limitation: Small sample of 20 patients, with single meals tested rather than habitual intake, so longer-term effects of mung bean on symptoms are unknown.PubMed 31484315 · 1 more mung beans study - Tangerine peel
The tangerine peel drink group showed significant reductions in body weight and triglycerides after the intervention compared with the control group (p < 0.05). Safety markers showed no adverse effects. Gut microbiota and serum metabolite profiles also differed.Limitation: Small pilot trial with only 55 of 72 participants completing. The fermented product is not the same as plain tangerine peel, and the control group is not described.PubMed 40225325
From the Nourilo Research Library. Findings come from specific doses, extracts and populations and may not apply to a home-cooked recipe.
Safety first — read before you cook
This is a traditional food, not a treatment. Please check with your doctor or pharmacist before making it a regular part of your diet if you:
- are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are cooking for a young child;
- take regular medicines — especially blood thinners, blood-pressure, diabetes or immune-suppressing drugs;
- have a kidney, liver or heart condition, or a known food allergy.
Stop eating it and seek advice if you notice an allergic reaction or feel unwell. Safety notes reviewed 8 October 2026 · How we write safety notes
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