Red Bean and Jujube Zongzi (红豆枣粽子, Rice Dumplings in Bamboo Leaves)
Zongzi are a staple during the Dragon Boat Festival, held on the 5th of the 5th lunar month every year. The history of the holiday is interesting and you can read more about it here, but here’s a summary of the most popular story: after some political issues, the poet Qu Yuan drowned himself in a river and people who admired him set out in boats to find his body (hence the dragon boat races). When they couldn’t find it, they threw rice dumplings in the water so the fish wouldn’t eat his body, thus leading to the tradition of eating zongzi.
Different regions of China have different versions of zongzi. The sweet version in this recipe is popular in the north of China while savory versions with pork, egg yolks, and other ingredients are popular in southern parts.
Ingredients
- Sticky/glutinous rice: White or purple sticky rice works, though white is most common.
- Dried red bean: Adzuki (small red) and normal-sized red beans work. If you want, you can turn the red beans into red bean paste but I find that the long cooking process basically does that for you. If you want a discernibly sweet dumpling, add sugar to the red beans, since the only other sweetness will be from the jujube.
- Dried jujubes: Also known as Chinese red dates, these can be a little hard to find if you aren’t near an Asian grocery store. You can substitute other dried fruit to contribute sweetness, but the flavor and texture won’t be the same. Alternatively, you can use more red bean/rice and add sugar to compensate.
- Bamboo leaves: These will probably be the hardest to source, but their aroma is an integral part of zongzi. You can buy them dried online, but if you’re lucky enough to find fresh ones that will work, too.
- Sugar: Not required, but highly recommended. Otherwise, the rice/beans will taste plain and not sweet.
Tips
There are lots of tutorials online about different ways to wrap zongzi, though I generally find that as long as the zongzi is wrapped up with no leaks, all is well. Shape won’t affect taste, though really large zongzi may take longer to cook through.
These images show how to fold a pyramidal/tetrahedral zongzi.
Zongzi (粽子, Rice Dumplings Wrapped in Bamboo Leaves)
Course: MainCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Medium15-20
zongzi45
minutes35
minutes6-8
hoursIngredients
500g (2¼ cups) sticky/glutinous rice
350g (1⅓ cups) dried red bean
15-20 small dried jujubes (Chinese red dates), rinsed
20-30 bamboo leaves
kitchen twine/cotton string/grass for wrapping
sugar to taste, optional
Directions
- Day before or morning of:
- Soak the rice, dried beans, and dried leaves in plenty of water to cover. Make sure you leave enough space for the rice and beans to expand.
- Before assembling:
- Cook the beans: 30 minutes in an Instant Pot, in a rice cooker on Porridge mode, or in a pot for 40 minutes. They don’t have to be super cooked since you will be boiling the assembled dumplings later. Add about 3 cups of water, and some extra water is fine since you’ll be scooping the beans out of the liquid during assembly.
- Sweeten the red beans after they are finished cooking. Any leftover beans/liquid can be eaten as red bean soup!
- Assembly:
- Refer to picture in blog post, online tutorials, or your own instinct and have fun exploring geometry with zongzi wrapping!
- Make a cone with the bamboo leaf. Fill the point of the cone with drained sticky rice and spread some up the walls of the cone.
- Add a scoop of drained cooked red bean to the center of the cone, followed by a small jujube.
- If your cone isn’t already full (it should have some space left), cover the top with more beans and rice.
- Fold on leaf side over, sealing the top of the zongzi. Fold the other leaf side over, and wrap the extra leaf matter around to really seal the filling tightly inside and hopefully end up with a tetrahedral shape. Wrap snugly with string/grass.
- Resist overstuffing the zongzi or tying it too tightly as the rice will expand while cooking.
- Cooking
- Once all the zongzi are wrapped, place them in a large pot, cover with water, and weigh down with a plate. Bring the water to a boil, then keep at a light simmer for 35 minutes. There’s no meat in the filling, so the goal is to cook the rice and you can adjust cooking time as needed.
- If your zongzi are leaking significantly, you can also steam them. Steam for 35 minutes, pouring water over the zongzi every so often so they don’t dry out.
- Finally, enjoy your zongzi! Some people like to dip them in white sugar, which is a good option if you overestimated how sweet they would be.
