12/24/2024
Red bean soup with sweet rice balls 팥죽과 옹심이 for Winter Solstice
Here's red bean soup I made this year. Red bean soup has been traditionally eaten in Korea on Winter Solstice to ward off evil spirits, as color red is believed to have powerful good luck. In old days, Winter Solstice was considered as a mini new year and people had a saying that you dont age another year unless you eat patjook on Winter Solstice day.
Red bean has a lot of varieties of use in Asian cooking. It can be eaten as main ingredients, or as topping. It can be flavored both savory or sweet, hence you see a lot of Asian desserts sweetened with sweet red bean paste. It has lots of beneficial minerals and nutrition for the body, especially high in protein, calcium, Vitamin B, etc, which are great nutrition for the body in winter time.
The sweet rice balls are called Ongshim-yi. These cuties are soft and chewy, perfect to fill your belly and give some texture to the soup. The dough requires mixing with hot water and kneed for at least 20 mins. It's a lot of work but fun!
I had fun with my toppings - roasted bean powder, h**p seeds, and some almonds for crunch.
Red bean soup can be seasoned in two ways: sweet or savory. My family is a Team Savory. What about you?
