Red Bean Job's Tears Porridge — Heavy, Puffy, Tired All the Time? This Bowl
By Vivian
Why You'll Love It
If you feel heavy all the time, wake up still tired, your face is oily by noon and your belly feels puffy, Chinese home cooking calls that whole cluster dampness — and this is the bowl I make for it.
Toasted job's tears, red beans, lotus seeds, a little rock sugar. Nothing hard to find, nothing hard to do.
The next morning the body feels lighter, and the puffiness around the face is down. This is what I go back to after too many late nights, when my skin looks yellow and dull, or when I stand up too fast and the room goes dark for a second.
Keep it up for a month and the change in your colour is visible — not in a filter way, in a mirror way.
And it's the rare bowl that is both filling and light: it drains dampness, eases puffiness, builds blood, and the lotus seeds cool you down a little at the same time.
Even halfway through a diet it's fine — it fills you up without costing you anything.
Ingredients
| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| a small handful red beans (adzuki beans) | a small handful job's tears (coix seeds) |
| a small handful lotus seeds, cores removed | a small handful red kidney beans |
| yellow rock sugar, to taste | cold water, for soaking |
| To build blood (optional) | |
|---|---|
| a small handful peanuts | a small handful dried longan |
| a small handful black rice | extra water, as needed |
Ingredient Notes
- Small-grain job's tears are more fragrant than the large ones.
- Job's tears run cold — toasting them first makes the bowl gentler.
- Adzuki beans drain dampness better; ordinary red beans give a softer, starchier body. Pick by what you're after.
- Pull the green cores out of the lotus seeds, or the whole pot turns bitter.
- Yellow rock sugar is softer and rounder than white — use it if you have it.
Instructions
-
1
Red beans, job's tears and lotus seeds are all hard, so soak them at least 4 hours ahead — overnight if you can. Shortcut this and they never soften into that split, melty texture.
-
2
Drain the soaked job's tears and toast them in a dry pan over low heat, stirring, until they turn faintly golden and smell of rice. That one step takes the chill off them, so the bowl sits easy even on a weak stomach.
-
3
Put the toasted job's tears, the soaked red beans and the lotus seeds into a rice cooker, add about twice their volume of water, and press the porridge setting. Then leave it alone.
-
4
When it's done, add yellow rock sugar to taste and stir until it has completely dissolved.
-
5
Eat it hot and it's a warm blanket in a bowl. In summer, chill it for an hour or two instead — clean, cold and gently sweet, better than any milk tea, and the beans go soft and sticky.
-
6
This is a later pot with peanuts, dried longan and black rice added. If building blood is the goal, add them freely — there are no fixed amounts, adjust to how you feel. If draining dampness is the goal, stay with the original four.
Recipe Notes
Red Bean Job's Tears Porridge
Red bean, job's tears and lotus seed porridge: the job's tears are toasted first to take the chill off, then simmered with red beans and lotus seeds until they split, and finished with yellow rock sugar — the bowl I make to drain dampness and build blood.
Time Needed
Plus at least 4 hours of soaking.
Prep Ahead
- Red beans, job's tears and lotus seeds are hard — soak them at least 4 hours, ideally overnight, or they will never split.
- Toast the job's tears the night before and keep them covered, so the morning is just one press of the rice cooker.
- 【Yield】one pot makes 3–4 bowls — a small handful of each bean is enough.
- 【Key ratios】beans to water about 1:8–10, and the rice-cooker porridge setting handles the rest in one press.
- 【Heat】toast the job's tears over low heat until faintly golden and fragrant; simmer the beans until they split and go soft.
- 【Soaking】red beans, job's tears and lotus seeds need at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- 【Storage】keeps 3 days refrigerated — reheat with a splash of water. Don't freeze it, the beans go mealy.
- 【Common failures】beans that stay hard weren't soaked long enough or there wasn't enough water; bitter job's tears means they scorched in the pan.
Nutrition (per 100 g, estimated)
| Calories | about 97 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | about 4 g |
| Fat | about 0.6 g |
| Carbohydrates | about 19 g |
| of which sugars | about 6 g |
| Fiber | about 2.5 g |
| Sodium | about 15 mg |
Estimated from the recipe amounts, not lab tested. One bowl is about 300 g, about 291 kcal. Energy converted at 4 kcal/g protein, 9 kcal/g fat, 4 kcal/g carbohydrate.