Slippery jelly noodles seasoned with a mouthwatering dressing, Liang Fen is a refreshing dish with great texture. It only takes a few minutes to make it from scratch.
Update Notice: This is a revised version of my previous post. It includes more tips, new images and a video.
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What is Liang Fen
Liang Fen/凉粉 (Mung Bean Jelly Noodles) is a humble cold dish popular in the western regions of China, such as Sichuan, Yunnan, Shannxi and my home province, Gansu.
Purely made of starch, it has a jelly-like texture: silky, slippery and springy. Having a plain taste on its own, it’s often served with a tangy, spicy sauce.
It’s one of my favorite childhood foods. I often had it after school at street stalls. Cool noodles coated with a mouthwatering dressing, it’s such a tasty and refreshing treat! Years ago, I learned from my mum how to make it from scratch.
It’s incredibly simple to make: heat up the mixture of mung bean starch and water until thick. Leave to cool and firm up in the fridge. Cut into noodle strips. Season with a savory dressing.
Top tips
To ensure you a great result, I’d like to emphasize a few top tips:
- Use mung bean starch or pea starch
- Follow the 1:7 starch water ratio
- Do not overheat the water
- Season with good quality chili oil
Ingredients
Here are what you need for making this Liang Fen dish:
- For the jelly: mung bean starch and water
- For the dressing: light soy sauce, black rice vinegar (e.g. chinkiang vinegar), sesame oil, chili oil, garlic, scallions and fresh chili (optional).
Mung bean starch
Known as Lü Dòu Fěn/绿豆粉 in Chinese, mung bean starch is a fine white powder made from mung beans, a type of legume widely used in Chinese cuisine (Think bean sprouts). When mixed and heated with water, it turns into a thick paste. Once cooled down, it then solidifies into a piece of jiggly, slippery jelly.
You can find mung bean starch in Chinese/Asian stores in the flour and starch section (What I used is a Thai brand shown in the image above). Do not confuse it with other types of starch, such as cornstarch, potato starch, sweet potato starch, tapioca starch, etc. Although similar in appearance, they don’t work for today’s recipe.
SUBSTITUTE: A less common type of starch, pea starch (Wā Dòu Fěn/豌豆粉), would make a perfect replacement if you’re lucky enough to find it.
Prepare the jelly
The starch water ratio
Once you know the perfect starch water ratio, it’s hard to fail in making the perfect Liang Fen. You can use any cup or bowl to measure, as the ratio is by VOLUME (not by weight):
- 1 part of mung bean starch
- 7 parts of water
For example, in today’s recipe, I use ½ cup of starch and 3½ cups of water to produce 2-3 servings of Liang Fen. You may alter the ratio slightly depending on your preference for firmness. But I don’t recommend you change it dramatically.
Cooking steps
1. First, mix the starch with a small amount of water in a bowl.
2. Stir well until there are fully combined.
3. Heat the remaining water in a saucepan. Once you see lots of bubbles appearing on the bottom and the side of the pan, turn down the heat to the low.
4. Pour the starch mixture into the pan.
🛎 N.B. It is crucial to add the mixture at the right moment. Don’t wait until the water comes to a full boil. This could cause complete failure.
5. Keep stirring with a spatula for 1-2 minutes depending on the heat. When you see big air bubbles coming up to the surface and the mixture becoming thick and sticky but still runny, remove the pan from the heat (check the video below for the desired consistency).
6. Pour it into a heat-proof container.
7. Leave to cool on the counter uncovered (it takes 1-2 hours depending on the room temperature). Once it becomes completely cool, cover with a lid or cling film and transfer to the fridge.
8. In 2 to 3 hours, it will turn into a block of white, firm jelly. Put one hand over the jelly then flip the container. It will come out easily and neatly. Transfer it to a clean cutting board.
Shape the noodles
There are two ways to turn a block of Liang Fen into noodles.
OPTION 1: Use a knife to slice the block into pieces, then cut them into noodle strips. Please feel free to choose your preferred size and thickness (Apart from the noodle shape, you may simply cut the block into cubes to serve).
OPTION 2: Use a special jelly scraper (known as Liáng Fěn Guā Zi/凉粉刮子) to shape round-shaped noodles (watch the video below to see how it works). I bought mine in China. I see it’s available online when searching the keyword “jelly scraper”.
Season the dish
Although having a wonderfully silky, slippery texture, Liang Fen tastes rather plain on its own. So it’s important to make a tasty dressing to serve it. There isn’t a set formula as regional variations exist, as well as home cooks’ own creations.
The seasoning combination in my recipe involves a handful of common Chinese condiments, plus a few aromatics to enhance the taste. Garlicky, tangy and spicy, it’s my favorite flavor profile for refreshing cold dishes like this one.
To make it stand out, the key is to use good quality chili oil/sauce which doesn’t need to be very hot but is highly aromatic. If you haven’t tried my homemade chili oil recipe, feel free to use other spicy sauces to substitute, such as the spicy version of black bean sauce, either homemade or commercial ones like Laoganma.
Alternatively, you may season Liang Fen with the hot oil dressing I introduced in my recipe for Wood Ear Mushroom Salad or the scallion & soy dressing for Cold Silken Tofu.
Make ahead
You can store Liang Fen in the fridge for up to 3 days. Keep it in the container and cut it right before you serve.
Please be aware that the longer you leave it in the fridge, the firmer and more brittle it will become (water tends to “escape” from the jelly over time).
So if you’re to serve it after more than 1 day, slightly increase the water volume needed for the recipe when cooking it.
Recipe FAQs
A: Plain Liang Fen is gluten-free but the dressing in this recipe contains wheat. To alter it, replace regular soy sauce with gluten-free soy sauce or tamari, and use fresh lime juice as a substitute for black rice vinegar.
A: Yes! In my home province Gansu, Liang Fen is also stir-fried with garlic, dried chilies, soy sauce, vinegar, etc. In this case, cut the jelly block into cubes, rather than noodles. Follow the regular stir-fry technique to cook.
A: They’re similar. Both of them are made of mung bean starch. Mung bean thread noodles come in dried form and require soaking and cooking. You can season them with the same dressing to make a cold dish, or use them to make Sichuan Vermicelli Stir-fry or Garlic Prawn with Vermicelli.
Other vegetarian dishes
Looking for more tasty vegetarian/vegan dishes? Check out these recipes:
📋 Recipe
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & if you REALLY like it, consider leaving a comment as well!
Liang Fen (Mung Bean Jelly Noodles, 凉粉)
BEFORE YOU START
Ingredients
For the jelly noodles
- ½ cup mung bean starch - see note 1
- 3½ cup water - divided
For the sauce
- 2 cloves garlic - minced
- 1½ tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1½ tablespoon black rice vinegar - e.g. chinkiang vinegar
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- Chinese chili oil - or spicy black bean sauce, to taste (see note 2)
- Salt - to taste
- Scallions - finely chopped
- Fresh chili - sliced (optional)
Instructions
Make the jelly
- In a bowl, mix mung bean starch with ½ cup of water until fully integrated.
- Heat up the remaining 3 cups of water in a saucepan until you see lots of bubbles start to appear at the bottom (Keep a close eye to avoid overheating it).
- Turn the heat to low. Stir the starch mixture well, then pour into the water. Stir constantly with a spatula for 1-2 minutes.
- When you see big air bubbles coming up to the surface and the mixture becoming quite thick and sticky but still runny, remove the saucepan from the heat (watch the video below for reference).
- Pour the translucent mass into a heat-proof container. Leave it to cool uncovered. Then cover with a lid and store in the fridge until it turns into a block of white, solid jelly. It takes 2-3 hours.
Cut the noodles
- Put one hand over the jelly, then flip the container upside down. It will slide off onto your hand easily. Put the block onto a chopping board.
- Use a knife to cut the jelly into noodle strips of your preferred thickness (See note 3 for an alternative method). Transfer them to a serving plate/bowl.
Season the dish
- In a small bowl, mix minced garlic, light soy sauce, black rice vinegar, sesame oil, chili oil and salt (if needed). Pour it over the jelly noodles. Top with scallions and fresh chili (if using).
Make ahead
- You can keep the jelly refrigerated for up to 3 days. Slice and season whenever you want to serve the dish.
- Be aware that the jelly will become firmer and more brittle over time. So if you plan to serve it after more than 1 day, increase the water by ½ cup when cooking it.
Video
NOTES
NUTRITION
NUTRITION DISCLOSURE: Nutritional information on this website is provided as a courtesy to readers. It should be considered estimates. Please use your own brand nutritional values or your preferred nutrition calculator to double check against our estimates.
Michael says
Thank you for posting this! It was extremely helpful!
I think I may have added the starch too early, or turned the heat down to low too quickly, as it took a lot longer than 2 minutes to reach the stage that you describe! I’m wondering that if you wait too long to add the mung bean starch, maybe an immersion blender could be used to save the mix?
Also, after only a single night in the fridge, the mung bean jelly lost a noticeable amount of volume to water. I guess it’s best when you make it the day of?
Wei Guo says
Thank you for trying out my recipe Michael! It sounds like the water wasn’t hot enough when you poured in the starch slurry. It’s not a problem this way, though, as you’ll eventually achieve the desired consistency. If you add the starch slurry too late (when the water is too hot), lumps will appear quickly. I don’t see how an immersion blender would help.
It’s normal that the jelly block loses water content over time. If you don’t plan to use it straightaway and prefer a softer texture, stop cooking the mixture a little sooner so it contains more water in the beginning. Hope this is clear.
Alex Landon-Lane says
This has to be the simplest recipe ever. I’ve eaten it for years and always thought it was made from yam flour.
So I am thinking laterally here…my daughter in law is coming for dinner and she has so many things she doesn’t like to eat. I am making bang bang chicken (your recipe) but she won’t eat cucumber. So i thought the noodles are a similar slippery texture to cucumber…..The dressing for both dishes is very similar too. Trouble is all of my kids adore jelly noodles so I’ll be making a big batch of both. BTW hello from New Zealand
Wei Guo says
I’ve never thought about combining these two dishes, but why not! So happy to know you find my recipe helpful.
Amy says
Hi there, do you think I could substitute the water for coconut water instead to make it into a dessert?
Wei Guo says
I’ve never tried with coconut water but I think it would work fine.
jonincentex says
We are thinking the same thing – mutant coconut
Sofia says
Hello! This recipe looks super interesting but I checked my local Asian shop and they had only mung bean flour, do you think it can be used instead of mung bean starch? Thanks 🙂
Wei Guo says
I know that some mung bean starch is labeled as mung bean flour. If it looks very white and fine (just like cornstarch), it is the right one.
Lesli says
I want to make these to use in a “stir fry” with shrimp and green onions… can they be cooked, and served hot??
Wei Guo says
Yes, you can stir-fry mung bean jelly (in fact it’s a recognised dish in my hometown). I suggest you cut it into cubes instead of the noodle shape. This way, it has less chance to break during stir-frying. Happy cooking!
Lesli says
They turned out wonderfully!!! This morning I am already thinking… could I spread the cooked gel onto a sheet pan to get them very thin, then use a noodle cutter? I will be making this again! Thank you both for the recipe and the quick reply!
Wei Guo says
Cool it on a sheet pan? I’ve never thought about this idea but why not?
Lesli says
So, I’ve made these about 4 times now, with the best results last night…. I poured the jelly into 2 quarter sheet pans. Let them set up, then transferred noodle sheet to a cutting board. I then used a noodle cutter to cut them perfectly into long strands. I have a photo I’d love to share with you!
Wei Guo says
Thank you for sharing your cutting trick Lesli! That sounds like a great idea. You may share the photo with me via email or on Instagram.
Henk brekelmans says
Can i use dried mung-bean noodles for this dish????
I love your site and use it a lot to cook chinese dishes at least once per week
Henk
Ps: could you post some more Hunan dishes?
Wei Guo says
Yes, you can served cooked mung bean noodles with the same seasonings. I love Hunan cuisine too! So far I’ve only posted one dish (Hunan Pork Stir-fry) but will write more for sure.
Bilkish Vazifdar says
Where can i buy one of the jelly bean slicer
Wei @ Red House Spice says
It’s available in China, particularly on all major Chinese online shopping platforms. Unfortunately I haven’t seen it elsewhere.
Hilde says
I bought it on aliexpress.com!
Heddi says
Such a beautiful dish, Wei! I’ve never tried this before. I love the special spoon that you have for making it. Looks colorful and delicious, as always.
Wei @ Red House Spice says
Thank you Heddi! It’s a pity that it hasn’t been introduced to the West yet. I love the slicer too. Cute and very efficient.