Lephing – Spicy Mung Bean Cake
I’ll like to start this foodblog with Lephing as this is one recipe that everyone asks me for. An all time favorite tibetan streetfood, Lephing is sold on the streets of Lhasa, Tibet’s capital city and Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile. It is a spicy mung bean gelato flavored with garlic and chillies. The gelato itself is very simple and kind of flavorless but the sauce that covers it, is full of flavor and it will absorb that flavor. Everyone has their own version of the sauce and here’s mine.
Lephing (Spicy Mung Bean Cake)
Ingredients
7 Tablespoon Mung Bean Flour-Phingtsam
4 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
(Mung Bean flour is available in asian/korean grocery stores and sometimes labeled as Green Bean Flour)
Sauce :
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 Tablespoon water
4 Tablespoon Soya Sauce
1 Tablespoon Vinegar
Chilli to taste (dried chilli powder or bottled/homemade chilli sauces)
Cilantro – chopped
Chives – chopped (if available)
Mix the Mung Bean powder with 1 cup of cold water until the powder completely dissolves – this will make a milky liquid.
Bring the rest of the water to a boil in a saucepan. As soon as the water starts boiling. turn the heat low, add the salt and slowly pour the mungbean mixture into the pan little by little while constantly stirring with a whisk or spatula. (Quick and constant stirring is the key to great lephing – continue until your liquid is colourless and the mixture is thick and gel-like.)
Pour into a slightly oiled container – (you can use cupcake holders if you want individual servings or just use a large rectangle dish). Let this set at room temperature. After about 15 minutes, when the surface of the lephing is hard to touch, you can cover it with cold tap water – this helps the lephing set faster and keeps it from drying).
Your lephing should be ready in about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Cut into bite size pieces, add your sauce and serve with Bhaley(Tibetan Flat Bread – recipe coming) or pita bread. (There is a trick to cutting lephing – you have to wet your knife .. a wet knife will just slice through your lephing otherwise it will stick).
Sauce :
In a small container, mix the garlic and water – let stand while you make your lephing. This garlic water forms the base for your sauce. You can just use the water or use it with the garlic which is my preference.
Add the rest of the ingredients stir well and your sauce is ready. (Use chilli generously as this is a dish meant to get you sweating – the spicier, the better)
17 comments on “Lephing – Spicy Mung Bean Cake”
Please leave a comment. Thank you.
Top Posts & Pages
Simply Tibetan, Simply Delicious 
Hi I have made a video of making yellow laphing. It is uploaded in youtube.
The video is quite in detail and it is very good for learners.
Hi, how is the yellow pancake-shape like noodle is called? When searching for “laphing” I only find the white one.
Thanks!
How to make lephing serpo? Please please!! 🙂
Pingback: Lephing | Mark Masselli Vegetarian
Pingback: Drang-thuk | Simply Tibetan, Simply Delicious
Dear Simply Tibetan
Lephing is not Tibetan style food, it is purely chines food. please you do not mind about my message, i not going to against your page. you done very wonderful blog and i love every day read the pages. you Brother T. Samdup from Gangtok
how should i put the khabsey in dergah, should it be face up or down and how high?
Wangden la,
I don’t see a problem in you sharing info on TibetanTsampa.com even if you owned it as long as the Tsampa is good.
Wow, thank you, I used your recipe and it tasted so delicious! Thuje Che!
There is Tibetan family in California who sells real tasty Tsampa. I buy from them regularly now. If you are interested, check out their website: http://www.tibetantsampa.com.
PS. I have no connection with the family. I don’t know them and I am not their friend or relative.
Hey how do you make the yellow laphing..MT,Delhi jhola didn’t give me any information becuz he thought i will overtake his business:) understandable… but i did tell him i am from ari, and i wouldn’t go against his business:)
Plez Plez, if you know how to make lhaphing saywo-please post it up:)
Thank you so much for the lephing recipe i love this i got it in dharmasala and delhi, maj nu ka tilla. been looking for the recipe for a long time thank you again.
lyn
I am craving for Baktsa Marku- i don’t know its western name. I am wondering if you know the recipe for that.
Pingback: Recipe Wednesday: Spicy Mung Bean Cake « Asian Pacific-Islander Heritage Celebration
I googled across your blog while searching for recipes using mung beans. Koreans eat a dish that is identical except for the absence of cilantro, which Koreans do not eat. I know nothing about Tibetan cuisine but am surprised that the two nationalities share a dish since they are not geographically or culturally related.
Thanks Gumag Gyalpo La – will be nice to see you back here again!!
Mmmmmhummm This sound like a delicious site to visit from time to time. Love the idea & Congratz.