Naturally-coloured glutinous rice balls (tang yuan) for Winter Solstice Festival 冬至

glutinous rice balls

Traditionally, Winter Solstice Festival (or Dong Zhi 冬至 in Mandarin) is a time for family reunion. For some, the Winter Solstice Festival is more important than the Lunar New Year. Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) is synonymous with this festival and the making and eating of it symbolises reunion. There are many types of tangy uan, some filled with red bean paste, peanut paste or sesame paste. It could be served in sweet syrup or ginger syrup. With the trend of consuming less chemicals and processed foods, here's a recipe for naturally-coloured glutinous rice balls.

I used purple sweet potatoes to get purple-coloured glutinous rice balls, sweet potato for orange-coloured ones, and pandan leaves for green. I cheated by using red food colouring with the red ones as I could not find red dragon fruit in time.

Note: It is said that eating tangyuan is to welcome the new year and get older by a year (per tangyuan), but do not let that deter you from enjoying those chewy rice balls.

Ingredients (the measurements can be tweaked as mymotherfol lows the agak-agak policy):

A) Glutinous rice balls 150g purple potato 150g pandan leaves 150g sweet potato 200g glutinous rice flour

B) Ginger syrup: 1.8 litre water 300g sugar Crushed old ginger Three knotted pandan leaves

1. Blend the purple potato, sweetpotatoandpandan (screwpine) leaves individually.
2. Use approximately 150g of each and incorporate it with 200g of glutinous rice flour, add one bowl of water.
3. Knead it to form a soft dough.
4. Next, roll it into small balls.
5. Boil a pot of water.
6. Put the glutinous rice balls into the boiling water.
7. Oncethericeballsarecooked, they will float to the surface.
8. Place them in a bowl of ice water to get a chewy texture before transferring the rice balls into the ginger syrup.
9. Alternatively, just pop them into the syrup.
10. Enjoy the dish.

Note: Alternatively, you can also add gingko nuts.