Beans are considered to be a countryside food. The first connotation that comes to our minds when we think about beans is a tasty casserole, steaming with thick sauce and smoked flavor, a nice and warming winter stew. No one is thinking about sexy and tiny beans accompanied by magical aromas of the Orient.
The adzuki beans are exactly that. It came to us from East Asia 4,000 years ago. Its name in Japanese means small bean, but its named changed, from one country to another and received a variety of names such as “red Chori” from India or a “pat” in Korea. The adzuki beans are very popular in Japan where even Pepsi invented a soft drink, flavored adzuki. The adzuki bean is basically upright shrub that grows small beans, typically reddish in color. The Little bean is used in the Asian kitchen mainly as a spread or flour integrated sweet dishes and desserts due to the sweet and walnut bean, for example handcuffed pancakes stuffed with adzuki paste, small balls like pralines, coated and stuffed with sweet adzuki or the beans themselves cooked in sweet syrup and served as candy
Tiny but wonderful
These tiny pulses are full of goodness and help relieve a range of illnesses. The adzuki is rich in folic acid, iron, zinc, potassium, fiber and many others. Chinese medicine refers to adzuki as a Young Plan characterized as a heater and helps cure colds and dry, mouth sores and oily skin, dry mouth, nervousness, stress, rapid heartbeat, depression, fertility problems and more.
How to cook it
Like most Vegetables, it is recommended to soak the Adzuki for 24 hours before cooking it. Preferably after soaking the beans to germinate them because it increases and improves the quality of the protein. You can use the sprouts in salad or as tasty snack. After soaking the adzuki, cook the adzuki in boiling water. After boiling remove the foam and cook for about an hour. And the beans are ready to be devoured.
The adzuki travels around the western world
So how can these amazing Asian beans be combined in the Western kitchen as we know it? Very simple! Use these beans to prepare adzuki balls with sweet potatoes and nuts, as meat substitutes in Bolognese sauce mushroom and adzuki stew. This is the adzuki beauty, it can be used in a variety of stews and dishes, it allows creativity and gives you the option to run wild in the kitchen, and integrate it into special dishes both savory and sweet.
