Learn how to easily cook sweet mung bean soup (green bean soup) with sago pearls and coconut milk using Instant Pot pressure cooker or on the stove. It is a popular dessert in Asia.
Rinse the mung beans in several changes of water until clean.
If cooking on the stove:
Soak mung beans for at least 4 hours or overnight. Discard the soaking water
Bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Add mung beans and pandan leaves. Bring water back to a boil and then lower the heat to let it simmer partially covered, for the next 30 minutes or until most of the beans break open and tender. Add the sago pearls and continue cooking for another 10 minutes or until the sago pearls turn translucent. You may still see some white spots in the pearls, but as long as they are soft and chewy, they are done cooking. The sago pearls may thicken the soup slightly too
If you plan to use small tapioca pearls, I suggest you cook them separately, rinse them in water and add them into the mung bean soup after the beans are done cooking
Turn off the heat and stir in coconut milk, a small pinch of salt, and sweetener of your choice.
If cooking with Instant Pot pressure cooker:
You don't need to soak the mung beans if using a pressure cooker. Put mung beans and water in the inner pot of Instant Pot. Press "saute" to bring the water to a boil. When it boils, add pandan leaves and large tapioca pearls (if you use the large one). If you are using the small pearls, I suggest cooking them separately on the stove, rinse with water and then add them in after the beans are done cooking. Close the lid and press "pressure cooker" and make sure it's on "high pressure". Set the timer to 40 minutes
When it's done cooking, wait 5 minutes and then release pressure. If you use small tapioca pearls, add the cooked tapioca pearls into the soup
Stir in the sweetener of your choice. I use a mixture of coconut sugar and granulated sugar, a small pinch of salt, and stir in the coconut milk. Don't boil the coconut milk. The residual heat will melt the sugar and warm the coconut milk up