Juancheng Zuoying Mung Bean Balls 鄄城左营绿豆丸子

Juancheng Zuoying Mung Bean Balls (鄄城左营绿豆丸子) are a mung-bean speciality from Zuoying (左营), Juancheng (鄄城). Maker Liang Changjiang (梁长江) lists beef, mung beans, seafood and sesame among the principal ingredients of his version, eaten as a snack, in soup or in hot pot.

How it is made

The beans are soaked, peeled and ground into a slurry. Further stages include forming at low temperature, frying and removing excess oil. Liang expanded the older five-stage process into thirteen operations and developed equipment for forming and frying.

His account links differences in flavour to how heat reaches the cooking vessel, including heat from below, through the middle or in circulation.

Where it comes from

Shandong Publicity Network traces the food’s history back more than two hundred years and identifies Liang as a fifth-generation maker.

In the family history he recounts, flood losses encouraged Zuoying farmers to grow short-season mung beans alongside wheat. The family first sold bean balls at markets, later adding diced local beef. Bowls of the resulting meat-and-bean-ball soup became part of the market trade.