Bubur kacang hijau is a sweet pudding made with whole mung beans, coconut milk, palm sugar and pandan leaves. An incredible combination!
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Table of contents
Bubur Kacang Hijau
Let’s break it down, shall we?
- bubur = porridge (this includes sweet and savoury)
- kacang = nuts (old spelling kachang)
- hijau = green
- kacang hijau = literally, green nuts, referring to mung beans (which are of course, not actually nuts!)
- Bubur kacang hijau = mung bean porridge, and definitely sweet
A Ramadan Recipe
Bubur kacang hijau is a very traditional recipe that is enjoyed throughout the year and especially at tea time. However, like so many of our buburs, it is especially popular during Ramadan. You get carbs, fibre and sugar after a long day of fasting. Just perfect.
We have so many different types of bubur in Singapore and Malaysia, and they can refer to both sweet and savoury dishes. Some are found more so during Ramadan than at other times, like Bubur Lambuk, the lightly spiced rice porridge, below. Here on SMR, you’ll find 3 more bubur recipes, 2 of them being savoury.
Bubur Kacang Hijau Recipe
Just like bubur pulut hitam and in fact, many others, bubur kacang hijau is a very straightforward and easy recipe. It’s a simple case of soaking, then boiling our mung beans and flavouring the mung bean pudding. This is what we’ll be doing:
- Soak the mung beans overnight.
- Boil, then simmer them for 1 – 1 1/2 hours, with pandan leaves and sugar.
- Add some of the coconut milk and salt, and simmer for a few minutes.
- Dish up with an additional drizzle of coconut milk.
Easy, right?
Ingredients
Mung Beans
Mung beans are those little hard green beans often used to make green dal. You want the unhusked ones. They should be pretty easy to get in most parts of the world, especially if you have access to a south Asian store. Or go online.
Here in the UK, most of our supermarkets stock them, next to the pulses and lentils.
Coconut Milk
If you have access to fresh coconut milk, that’s the way to go. Use the first pressing for the final topping before you serve the bubur kacang hijau. The second pressing is for adding at the end of cooking time.
If you only have access to canned coconut milk, as I do, then give the can a good shake, and use it that way.
You could also use just coconut cream, for both the cooking and the garnish. In this instance, you may need a little more water when cooking the mung beans.
Gula Melaka in Bubur Kacang Hijau
Gula melaka is the palm sugar that’s commonly used in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. It’s more often than not, made from the flower buds of the coconut palm.
Unlike the Thai palm sugar, gula melaka is very dark and hard. It is intensely rich and sweet with toasty, caramel flavours. I will advise against having a taste, because you will not be able to stop yourself from going back for more. Again and again!
To use gula melaka, you either chop it up into little pieces or grate it, the latter is much easier to do. But if the recipe calls for long cooking, like today’s bubur kacang hijau, I just drop the whole big piece in, as it will melt. Because I’m lazy like that!
Gula Melaka Substitute
Don’t sub gula melaka with Thai palm sugar, as it’s just not sweet enough. Coconut sugar is a great substitute for gula melaka, if you have access to it.
Otherwise, your best substitute for gula melaka is brown sugar (light or dark). Molasses is just too strong for this. As a last resort, white sugar makes a perfectly acceptable alternative to cook our bubur kacang hijau.
Pandan Leaves
Click here to read more on LinsFood. The pandan leaf has a wonderfully sweet aroma with dashes of freshly cut grass, and is a very common ingredient in South East Asian cooking, for flavouring both sweet and savoury dishes.
I have a pot of this but before I could get my hands on a plant, I resorted to the frozen kind. In fact, I still freeze excess leaves to preserve them. Here in the UK, some East Asian and South Asian stores may stock them; my Korean has recently doing this.
Otherwise, they are easily available online, and conveniently, via Amazon Prime too. Very handy if you need them asap!
If you can’t get pandan leaves for our bubur kacang hijau, leave them out or see if you can get hold of pandan essence or the Indian kewra from the usual suspects. I am not a fan of pandan essence as it is, to my knowledge, artificial. But things may have moved on in the last 30 years, who knows!
Click here for my YouTube short on how to extract pandan juice from fresh (or frozen) leaves.
Should you Soak Mung Beans?
Short answer? YES!
While you don’t technically have to soak mung beans, it’s best if you do. Why? Because:
- Soaking your mungs beans will produce beans that are softer and almost falling apart once cooked, making for a tastier dish.
- On top of that, soaking your mung beans overnight also reduces the phytic acid found in them. Phytic acid, found in many beans and pulses, interferes with the absorption of certain minerals, so reducing it is always a good thing.
- And finally, soaking your mung beans overnight will also help release the sugars that cause indigestion.
If you don’t soak them or soak them for just 1 hour, your final dish is going to produce mung beans that are have tougher skin, and to me, will not produce the best bubur kacang hijau or dal. And you’ll also have to cook them for longer to get them to be really soft.
How to Soak Mung Beans?
- Go through them quickly to pick out any stones and such.
- Give them a quick tap water rinse, then soak them with lots and lots of lukewarm water. Around 33 degrees Celsius/92 Fahrenheit is the recommended temperature to reduce the amount of phytic acid. I’m using 2 litres of water to just 1 cup of mung beans. That means you want a very large bowl, plastic or glass, it doesn’t matter. Leave them to soak overnight, or for at least 4 hours. No need to cover.
- Next day, drain and rinse. Now your mung beans are ready to be cooked.
How long will Bubur Kacang Hijau Keep?
Bubur Kacang Hijau will keep for 2 days if stored in the fridge. It will thicken considerably the longer you keep it, and especially when it’s cold.
Just heat it up gently with added water and a topping of coconut milk before serving. You may also need to add more sugar, depending on how much water you’ve added.
It can be eaten warm or at room temperature.
And now shall we get cooking?
If you enjoy the recipe, drop me a comment and let me know. And if you are feeling like a star, don’t forget that 5-star rating! Thank you!
If you make this recipe, post it on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @azlinbloor and hashtag it #linsfood.
Lin xx
Bubur Kacang Hijau Recipe (Sweet Pudding with Mung Beans)
Ingredients
- 200 g mung beans
- 2 L water for soaking, give or take
- 1½ L water for cooking
- 2 pandan leaves
- 100 g gula melaka (dark palm sugar) (or dark brown sugar), read article above
- 60 g white sugar
- 400 ml coconut milk this is 1 large can in the UK, see article above
- 1 small pinch salt
Instructions
The Night Before
- Soak the mung beans in 2L water overnight.At the very least, you want to soak them for 4 hours. Soaking the beans will produce a softer result. Read the article above for more.200 g mung beans, 2 L water
Let's get Cooking
- Drain and rinse the soaking mung beans and place them in a saucepan. Fill with 1 litre (4 cups) water and bring to a boil.Reduce the heat to low and skim off any foam or scum that floats to the top.In the video, I do this after adding the pandan leaves, but it's much easier to do it before.1½ L water
- Add the pandan leaves and both types of sugar and cook for 1 – 1½ hours until the mung beans are soft. I like them really soft, so I tend to go longer. Going longer means you'll have to add a little more water.If you didn't soak your mung beans overnight, you'll most likely need 2 hours and more water for them to get to the very soft, almost falling apart stage.2 pandan leaves, 100 g gula melaka (dark palm sugar), 60 g white sugar
- When you're happy with how cooked or soft the mung beans are, it's time to add the coconut milk.Shake your coconut milk can, then add 250ml (1 cup) of the coconut milk and a tiny pinch of salt, and bring back to a simmer on medium heat. Cook for another 10 minutes on low heat.Fresh coconut milk? You want the second pressing for this. Keep the first pressing for drizzling over. More in the article above.400 ml coconut milk, 1 small pinch salt
- Check seasoning and add more sugar if you'd like it sweeter. Turn the heat off and leave to rest for 5 minutes.Serve the bubur kacang hijau in little dessert bowls, drizzled liberally with the extra coconut milk.