Che Ba Ba (Southern Mixed Coconut Sweet Soup), Sweetened with Monk Fruit

Method

1. Soak the tapioca starch strips in about 500ml water for 15 to 30 minutes until swollen. Soak the split mung beans in water just covering them for 30 to 45 minutes.
2. Peel the sweet potato, wash it and cut it into cubes. Wash the pandan leaves and drain them. Boil the peanuts for 10 to 15 minutes until tender, or steam them. Husk the corn, pull off the silk, rinse it and shave off the kernels.
3. Steam the soaked mung beans over high heat for about 10 minutes from the moment the water boils. Split them in two, blending one half smooth and leaving the other whole.
4. Put 10 tablespoons tapioca starch on a plate and roll the sweet potato in it to coat. Bring 500ml water to a boil, drop in the potato and boil for 5 to 7 minutes, and once the coating turns clear it is cooked. Lift it into a bowl of cold water, then drain it in a sieve.
5. Bring 500ml thin coconut milk to a boil over medium heat, add the shaved corn and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the whole steamed mung beans, the blended mung beans, the soaked tapioca strips and the pandan leaves.
6. Cook another 5 to 7 minutes until the pot is at a gentle boil, then add the boiled sweet potato and the peanuts, stirring steadily so nothing catches on the bottom.
7. Once the soup is boiling well, add 450g kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and stir until dissolved, taste for sweetness and turn off the heat.

Tips

• Coating the sweet potato in tapioca starch before boiling keeps the cubes whole and gives them a lightly chewy skin.
• Splitting the mung beans in two, half blended smooth for body and half left whole, gives the soup something to chew on.
• Stir steadily once the pot comes to a gentle boil so nothing catches on the bottom.
• The tapioca strips need the full 15 to 30 minutes to swell evenly, since a short soak leaves them hard.
• Boil the peanuts soft on their own before they join the pot, since cooking them in from the start leaves them hard.