I loved anything with red bean when I was growing up and I still do. My favourite was steamed red bean buns and sweet red bean soup (red beans boiled with sugar, lotus seeds, and orange peel). You can also find azuki /red bean squashed into a paste and used as stuffing in many Chinese foods, such as sticky rice balls, mooncakes, buns and red bean drinks/smoothies. It’s a very popular legume in the asian cuisine that is an excellent source of fiber + protein and rich in B vitamins.
Source: Steamed red bean bun recipe from Rasa Malaysia
Source: Red Bean soup recipe from Bread et Butter, mochi with red bean paste
Here’s my recipe for some creamy azuki (red bean) frozen popsicles:
- 1 cup azuki/red beans
- 1 cup coconut cream or coconut milk.
- 1/4 cup milk or evaporated milk
- 3/4 cup cane sugar or to taste. (Dissolve sugar in little water on the stove until it becomes syrupy.)
1. Cook the beans Soak the beans for an hour and then cook until soft (1 hour on low or in a pressure cooker for 15 mins). (More instructions on preparing azuki beans here)
2. Blend together Set aside 1/3 of the whole cooked beans. Blend the rest of the beans with coconut cream or milk and sugar syrup. Add the whole beans, some tapioca pearls (optional) and the whole beans.
3. Freeze and eat Pour into popsicle molds and freeze. Leftover red bean can be kept in the fridge as cold dessert or alternative breakfast porridge.
There is a large variety of popsicle molds out now. Here are the ones I have: Kinderville Ice Pop molds and Tovolo rocket pops. Yummy for the tummy.
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