The Chinese Black Bean Soup/Den Kinesiske Sørte Bønne Suppe/黑豆湯[hēi dōu tāng]

Preparation and cooking time: It only takes 5 minutes to prepare and just let it cook automatically for 5-8 hours on low power or 3 hours on high power.

Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken or 1 pound fresh pork bones
- 1 cup of black beans
- 10 red dates
- 1 dried cuttlefish or 5 dried scallops (optional but makes the soup sweeter)
- 2 - 3 L of water

Directions:
1. Remove skin from chicken and soak the black beans overnight, if you have the time. If not, simply skip this step. It is ok.

2. Dump all the ingredients into the electric slow cooking pot and slow cook for 5-8 hours.

3. Dish out and add salt to taste. Serve with rice (preferably brown rice) and stir-fry vegetables Chinese style on the side to make a complete meal.

For babies:
From 8 months. This is a very nutritious soup for babies. Just remember NOT to add salt into it when you are making the soup!

Nutritional Value:
Black beans are an excellent source of iron and manganese. Black beans are an excellent source of cholesterol-lowering fiber and high quality protein. Black beans are high in dietary fiber, folate, molybdenum, tryptophan, vitamin B1 (thiamin), complex carbohydrates, magnesium and phosphorus.

Black beans have also recently been reported to be an extremely good source of nutritional antioxidants. Gram for gram, black beans are found to have the most antioxidant activity in the bean family.

Black beans help protect against cancer, lower heart attack risk and are good for diabetic as it give you energy to burn while stabilizing blood sugar. When combined with a whole grain such as whole wheat pasta or brown rice, provide protein comparable to that of meat or dairy foods without the high calories or saturated fat found in these foods.

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Additional Information:
I prepare in the evening and slow cook overnight. Soup ready for the next day for lunch pack to work. Also soup is done all ready at dinner time, perhaps just to heat it up. Pack the remainder in the fridge and bring it for lunch the following day. This method kills 3 birds with one stone - 2 lunches and 1 dinner - super!

Also if you don't have the time or forget to make rice, simply eat the black beans as a substitute for rice. The black beans are very filling and high in fiber.

References:
http://www.noobcook.com/chinese-black-bean-soup/
http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/black-bean-cuttlefish-soup/