Uses
In East Asian cuisine, the azuki bean is commonly eaten sweetened. In particular, it is often boiled with sugar, resulting in red bean paste (an), a very common ingredient in all of these cuisines. It is also common to add flavoring to the bean paste, such as chestnut.
Red bean paste is used in many Chinese foods, such as tangyuan, zongzi, mooncakes, baozi and red bean ice. It is also serves as a filling for Japanese sweets like anpan, dorayaki, imagawayaki, manjū, monaka, anmitsu, taiyaki and daifuku. A more liquid version, using azuki beans boiled with sugar and a pinch of salt, produces a sweet dish called red bean soup. Azuki beans are also commonly eaten sprouted, or boiled in a hot, tea-like drink. Some Asian cultures enjoy red bean paste as a filling or topping for various kinds of waffles, pastries, baked buns or biscuits.
In Japan, rice with azuki beans (赤飯; sekihan) is traditionally cooked for auspicious occasions. Azuki beans are also used to produce amanattō, and as a popular flavour of ice cream.
On October 20, 2009, Pepsi Japan released an azuki-flavored Pepsi product.
Azuki beans, along with butter and sugar, form the basis of the popular Somali supper dish cambuulo.
In Gujarat, India, they are known as chori.
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