AI-generated image
Xiamen sweet peanut soup
Huāshēng tāng (花生汤): peanuts simmered slowly until they melt on the tongue, in a light sweet broth
In Xiamen on the Fujian coast, peanut soup is breakfast, mid-morning snack and late-night treat, sold from steaming pots in the old arcades along Zhongshan Road. The peanuts are cooked so slowly that they become soft and creamy while keeping their shape, and the broth turns milky and lightly sweet. Locals often dunk a fried dough stick into it. Chef's tip: soak the peanuts, then freeze them overnight; the ice crystals break down the cell walls and the peanuts cook to that melting texture much faster.
- Total time
- 135 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 10 ½ oz raw peanuts, skinned
- 4 ¼ cups cold waterfor soaking
- 6 ¼ cups water
- 3 ½ oz rock sugar or white sugar
- 1 pinch salt
Shop this recipe on Amazon
Spices & pantry
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/5 doneStep 1: Rinse 10 ½ oz raw peanuts, skinned and soak in 4 ¼ cups cold water for 8 hours or overnight. Rub off any skins still clinging on; they would turn the soup brown.
Step 2: Drain, spread on a tray and freeze for at least 4 hours, or bag them and keep for weeks. This is optional, but it halves the cooking time.
Step 3: Put the frozen peanuts in a heavy pan with 6 ¼ cups water and bring slowly to the boil. Skim off any foam, then turn the heat as low as it goes and cover with the lid slightly ajar.
10 minStep 4: Simmer very gently for 1½–2 hours, until a peanut crushes to a cream between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. Common mistake: letting it boil hard, which breaks the peanuts up and makes the broth cloudy and grey.
110 minStep 5: Stir in 3 ½ oz rock sugar or white sugar and 1 pinch salt and simmer for 5 more minutes, until dissolved. The broth should be pale and milky. Serve hot, or chill and eat cold in summer.
5 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 330 kcal
- Protein
- 12 g
- Carbs
- 30 g
- Fat
- 19 g
- Fibre
- 4 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does xiamen sweet peanut soup take?
- About 135 minutes in total: 15 minutes to prepare and 120 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegan?
- Yes. It has no meat, fish, dairy or eggs.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- Can I make it ahead?
- Yes. It keeps well, so you can cook it earlier in the day or the day before and reheat it.
- What can I use instead of rock sugar or white sugar?
- Caster sugar, same amount.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Kartoshka cakeCocoa and cake crumb truffles
Soviet cafés and school canteens sold these knobbly brown 'potatoes' for a few kopecks, and they began as a thrifty way to use up sponge and biscuit trimmings at the bakery. Crumbs are bound with butter and sweetened condensed milk, flavoured with cocoa and vanilla, shaped into little potatoes, rolled in cocoa and finished with two dabs of pale butter cream for the sprouts. They are fudgy and dense like a brownie truffle, need no oven, and children love making them. Traditional bakers added a spoonful of rum, an optional extra for adult batches only; this version is alcohol-free with vanilla. The usual slip is coarse crumbs, which make the potatoes crack, so blitz them as fine as sand. Chef's tip: chill the shaped potatoes for at least 20 minutes so they hold their shape and slice cleanly.
Russian
Undu walaluFried urad dal rings in treacle
Walalu means bangles, and these dark, sticky rings of fried urad dal soaked in kithul treacle are a sweet that Sinhala families bring out for Avurudu and for special almsgivings, often made in large batches by an aunt known for her steady hand. A thick, fluffy paste of ground black gram is piped into loops and fried until crisp, then plunged straight into warm treacle, so the rings stay crunchy on the outside while drinking up the syrup. They taste a little like a darker, smokier jalebi, with a toffee finish from the palm treacle. Watery batter is what ruins them; it spreads into flat blobs, so grind the soaked dal with as little water as possible and beat it until light. This recipe uses no asafoetida, so it is naturally gluten free. Chef's tip: pipe the rings onto small squares of baking paper and lower them into the oil paper and all; the paper peels away in seconds.
Sri Lankan
Apple & pear puree
A smooth, naturally sweet puree of gently stewed apple and pear, one of the first foods for babies of 4–8 months. The fruit cooks in a little unsweetened apple juice, so nothing else is needed. Serve it lukewarm; any leftover keeps covered in the fridge for a day, or freezes well in small pots.