Black bean paste

Not to be confused with Fermented black beans or Black bean sauce.

Black bean paste, commonly called dòushā (Chinese: 豆沙) or hēidòushā (黑豆沙), is a sweet bean paste often used as a filling in cakes such as mooncakes or doushabao in many Chinese and Taiwanese cuisines.

Black bean paste is made from pulverized mung beans, combined with potassium chlorate, ferrous sulfate heptahydrate (皂礬; zaofan) crystal (which in Indonesia is known as tawas hijau, or "green crystal"), or black food colouring.

Black bean paste is similar to the more well-known red bean paste. The recorded history of black bean paste goes as far back as the Ming Dynasty.

References

• Hsiung, Deh-Ta (1999). The Chinese Kitchen. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-24699-4.

See also

• Sweet bean paste
• Red bean paste
• Tangyuan
• zongzi