Adzuki beans (also called Aduki or Azuki beans) are cultivated in Asia, especially in Japan, China, Korea but also in India, where they are called Chori.
In East Asia adzuki beans are often eaten sweet as addition to desserts such as macha muffins or as a red bean compote or red bean paste for pastry filling so common in Japan and China, for instance: mooncakes, daifuku, anpan, dorayaki, mochi balls or taiyaki.
FACTS
- Adzuki are also quite popular as an ice cream flavour.
- There was once adzuki flavoured Pepsi released back in 2009.
- Couple years ago in Japan KitKat produced limited edition of their bars with adzuki beans.
- In Japanese Starbucks you can get adzuki Frappuccino.
Some time ago I tried dorayaki, type of Japanese pancake filled with sweet azuki paste… it was ok, but personally I rather have adzuki beans in savoury dishes like this Smoked Garlic & Mushroom Barley Stew.
Informative article! The Far Easterners like their pulses in desserts, don’t they? I find it a bit strange though and for now will stick to eating them in savoury dishes. ;-)