Mung bean dessert with coconut milk: Indonesian Bubur Kacang Hijau

Bubur Kacang Hijau is creamy mung bean dessert with palm sugar and coconut milk. It’s sweet mung bean porridge that is a popular choice for breakfast as well as for dessert.

Indonesian mung bean dessert - Bubur Kacang Hijau in a silver rimmed bowl.

Bubur Kacang Hijau

Bubur Kacang Hijau literally means green mung bean porridge. It’s mung bean cooked in coconut milk and palm sugar that has a texture of porridge. So it is a sweet porridge.

You can find this hugely popular street food in almost every corner of Indonesia. Often it is paired with black glutinous rice porridge which is called Bubur Ketan Hitam.

A close up picture of Bubur Kacang Hijau the Indonesian mung bean dessert.

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Here, I’m sharing with you the recipe of the mung bean one. 

A modest dessert full of goodness

If you ever go to Indonesia, you may see many food street sellers that do ‘Bubur Kacang Ijo dan Ketan Item’. That literally means Mung bean porridge and black glutinous rice porridge

Often, this pair is enjoyed as breakfast and you can see the street hawkers selling them during AM. However, they’re also famous as sweet snacks that one enjoys in the afternoon.

And during the fasting month Ramadan, this Indonesian mung bean dessert becomes one of the most sought-after food items for breaking the fast.

This is because the impressive benefits of Mung beans are for health. But if you wonder, you can check out the article by Healthline on the health benefits of Mung beans here.

So really, having this sweet mung bean porridge in the morning to start the day won’t be a bad idea, imo. 

Simple ingredients

Traditionally, this Mung bean dessert only uses coconut milk, palm sugar, salt and pandan leaf that makes it 100% vegan. However, if you like, you can substitute the coconut milk with regular cow’s milk and pandan leaf with vanilla. It is equally yummy.

How to make Bubur Kacang Hijau

Essentially, you want to cook the mung bean on its own first until it’s fully cooked and soft. Just boil it in plenty of water without anything. 

It usually takes me around 20-25 minutes to cook the lentils. Do take care and keep stirring every now and again to ensure the mung beans are cooked evenly.

Once the beans are soft and cooked, you can add the sugar, salt, pandan leaf and ½ cup of coconut milk. Continue cooking until it simmers for about 2-3 minutes.

Then you heat the remaining coconut milk with a pinch of salt and pandan leaf. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes until the milk looks shiny.

Serve the porridge in a bowl and drizzle the coconut milk over it. 

Top tips to make a delicious Bubur Kacang Hijau

  • Try not to skip stirring the mung beans when boiling them the first time. Else, the lentils won’t cook evenly. 
  • A little bit of salt in sweet dessert will elevate the flavour. So do not skip the salt. 
  • When cooking the coconut milk, do so until the milk boils and simmers to the point that the oil slightly forms and separates from the milk on the edges. This way, the coconut milk won’t go bad quickly.
A bowl of Bubur Kacang Hijau - Indonesian mung bean dessert in palm sugar and coconut milk with blue pattern napkin and some dried mung beans as the background.

Storing matter

Technically, you can freeze your Bubur Kacang Hijau. It keeps well in the freezer upto 2 month. Take it out of the freezer and leave it to thaw overnight in the fridge/ refrigerator the night before serving.

Reheat the porridge until it is boiling and piping hot. Eat the thawed porridge within 3 days and do not refreeze. 

You can store your mung bean porridge in the fridge for upto 5 days.

More Indonesian sweet dessert recipes

I hope you find this Bubur Kacang Hijau recipe intriguing, and makes you want to try to cook it. If you do, please let me know what you think of it. Do you like it? If so, would you share your views about it in the comments below (leave a reply)?

And before you go, don’t forget to check my other Indonesian sweet dessert recipes that you may equally love.

Last but not least, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and/or Pinterest. To sneak a peek at what’s cooking in my kitchen. 

Take care and all the best.

Indonesian mung bean dessert - Bubur Kacang Hijau in a silver rimmed bowl.
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4.91 from 10 votes

Mung bean dessert with coconut milk

This creamy Mung bean dessert with coconut milk is called Bubur Kacang Hijau (Ijo) in Indonesian. It's a comfort sweet dish that popular to have for breakfast as well as for dessert.
Author: Devy Dar
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time35 minutes
Course: Breakfast & Brunch
Cuisine: Indonesian
Servings: 8

Equipment

  • Cooking pan
  • Wooden spoon

Ingredients

  • ½ cup mung beans.
  • ½ cup palm sugar jaggery.
  • ½ teaspoon salt.
  • 4 cup water.
  • 1 cup coconut milk.
  • 1 pandan leaf see the note.

Instructions

  • Wash and rinse the Mung beans 2-3 times, and boil the beans in 4 cups of water at medium heat with the lid on. Once the water reaches boiling point, you may want to take the lid off.
  • Stir the beans every now and again to make sure that all the lentils are evenly cooked. Usually, it takes me about 20-25 minutes.
  • Once the beans look plumped up and cooked, add in the sugar, salt, and ½ of pandan leaf. Cover the pot and cook further for about 5 minutes until all the beans soften. Keep an eye on it and stir it every so often to make sure everything is cooked. Try to mash some of them so the porridge will look thick and taste more flavoursome.
  • Then add in ½ cup of the coconut milk, stir the porridge, let it cook and simmer for another 5 minutes. Your bubur kacang Hijau is ready. Set aside.
  • In a separate pan, boil the remaining ½ cup of coconut milk with the other ½ of pandan leaf, and a pinch of salt until it boils. Once it reaches boiling point, let it simmer for at least 10 minutes until you can see the creamy coconut milk looks slightly oily. Turn the heat off.
  • Serve the Mung bean porridge in a bowl and pour the coconut milk over.

Notes

  • Pandan leaf has a very exotic and distinct fragrance. Here in the UK, the pandan leaf we get at the shop is imported from Thailand. And the leaves are very long. Indonesia’s pandan leaves are much shorter. Therefore, for this recipe, we only need one piece of Thai pandan leaf. If you find it difficult to find, you can substitute it with vanilla. I can only say that the Pandan aroma suits better with coconut milk.
  • If palm sugar (jaggery) is not available to you, you can substitute it with dark soft brown sugar or dark muscovado sugar.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 159kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Sodium: 206mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 17g

Disclaimer

Nutritional info in this recipe is only estimate using online calculator. You should refer to it as a guide only. Please verify with your own data if you seek an accurate info.

Author: Devy Dar

Title: Food Writer, Recipe Developer, and Digital Content Creator.

Bio:

Devy Dar founded So Yummy Recipes and Drizzling Flavor to share her love of food after exploring various cultures and cuisines for more than two decades. Her mission is to help others easily recreate traditional and non-traditional food with readily available ingredients. Her works have been featured in Reader’s Digest, Al Jazeera, MSN, Yahoo, Bon Appetit, and more. 

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