These Asian beans may help improve digestion, kidney and heart health, bone strength, and muscle mass, detoxify the liver, and lower cholesterol. Plus, they offer many more benefits! In this article, we will tell you what adzuki beans are, how they are different from legumes, their nutritional profile, health benefits, potential risks, some easy and delicious recipes to try, and steps to follow while cooking them. So take a look!
What Are Adzuki Beans?
Adzuki beans (Vigna angularis) are native to China and have been grown in Japan for at least 1000 years. Today, you can find the crops growing in Taiwan, India, New Zealand, Korea, Philippines, and warmer parts of China. Adzuki or aduki beans are rich in dietary fiber, protein, iron, calcium, and folate and have strengthening qualities. Also, because of the low glycemic index, adzuki beans are the preferred food for menstruating women and people with diabetes and obesity. So, how do you identify these beans? Let’s find out!
How Do They Look? How Are They Different From Other Legumes?
Adzuki beans are small, oval, bright-red, dry beans. You can find adzuki beans in a deeper red, maroon, black, and sometimes in white colors too. Unlike other dry bean varieties, such as kidney beans, adzuki beans take very less time to cook, thanks to the small size and fair amount of protein and carbs in them. They also don’t cause the characteristic flatulence and bloating like the rest of the legumes. Known to give you the ‘yang’ energy, adzuki beans are easily digestible and hence have a long list of benefits and recipes. Here’s a crisp compilation of what adzuki beans do to you. Go ahead and explore the world of adzuki!
What Are The Benefits Of Adzuki Beans?
1. Help In Weight Loss And Digestion
An unhealthy, high-fat, unbalanced diet is one of the most common and major reasons for obesity. And if obesity is not controlled, it leads to fatal complications. Adding adzuki beans to your meal improves the lipid metabolism, fat utilization, and energy production and treats obesity the healthy way. The micronutrients and fiber in these beans can reduce starch metabolism, decreasing glucose levels in your blood and gastric emptying. Due to this, you end up feeling full and satiated and tend not to overeat (1).
2. Promote Kidney Health
Adzuki beans boast of high dietary fiber content – about 25 g (in raw beans) per cup. They also contain potent antioxidant phytochemicals like polyphenols and proanthocyanidins in fair amounts. The combined action of fiber and antioxidants in adzuki beans scavenge reactive and undesirable free radicals and prevent the infiltration of inflammation-causing macrophages (immune system cells) (2). Consuming the right amount of adzuki beans keeps your kidneys safe, efficient, and free of inflammation, injury, and complete breakdown.
3. Give You Strong Bones And Enhance Muscle Mass
With age, your bones and muscles tend to lose their strength and the power of repair or healing. This loss results in osteoporosis and reduced muscle mass, especially in post-menopausal women. Cooked adzuki beans or their extracts contain bioactive ingredients like saponins and catechins. These ingredients restore the bone resorption and bone formation balance in people with osteoporosis and protect them from inflammation and total degeneration (3). A cup of raw adzukis has about 39 g of protein. Nothing can beat the power of protein! Low carb-high protein diets help you lose the flab and build muscle mass. Because your body takes more time and energy to digest protein, and because adzuki beans have a low glycemic index, it’s a good idea to have them for lunch. You’d feel full, light, and energetic (4).
4. Lower Cholesterol And Detoxify The Liver
Drinking adzuki bean juice or soup reduces the serum triglyceride levels, prevents the accumulation of bad cholesterol (LDL), and protects your liver from inflammation or damage. The proanthocyanidins and polyphenols in adzuki beans inhibit the production of pancreatic enzymes. These enzymes (especially lipases) are responsible for the absorption of lipids in the intestines (5). Due to the reduced absorption, the levels of triglycerides and cholesterol are lower in your blood. When there are less lipids and triglycerides, there’s low peroxidation or toxic residues that attack your liver. Hence, your liver is free from chronic liver diseases such as cirrhosis, fibrosis, or cancers.
5. Promote Heart Health
The high levels of antioxidant polyphenols, proanthocyanidins, vitamin B, folate, and potassium make adzuki beans the ideal candidate for a healthy heart. These bioactive components reduce the free radicals that cause lipid and fatty acid peroxidation. They also exhibit anti-hypercholesterolemic effects, i.e., they relax the blood vessels and reduce hypertension. The combined effect of all these components keeps your heart safe and cardiovascular diseases at bay (6).
6. Good For Women’s Health And Pregnancy
Adzuki beans are reservoirs of folate (1.2 mg in 200 g) – one of the essential vitamins for women. Especially in pregnant women, folic acid can help prevent NTDs (neural tube defects) (7). These beans are also rich in iron, manganese, phosphorus, and other micronutrients that help in regulating your menstrual cycle and premenstrual symptoms (PMS). In fact, Japanese women consume adzuki red bean paste or soup after menstruation to replenish the blood cells and prevent anemia (8). There are many more benefits of the adzuki beans – all because of the nutrients and micronutrients. Adzuki’s nutritional profile has some fantastic numbers. You HAVE to check it out. Scroll down!
Nutritional Information Of Adzuki Beans
That was the profile of the raw beans. Now, let’s look at the profile of cooked adzuki beans. Now that you got the numbers, I’m sure you’d want to whip up something delicious using these beans. Here are a couple of quick and tasty recipes I’ve compiled for you. Let’s get to the kitchen!
How To Cook Adzuki Beans – Quick And Tasty Recipes
1. Creamy Adzuki Bean Hummus
If you’re looking for super quick ways to add adzuki beans to your meal and don’t have the mood to make something elaborate, this is the recipe for you!
Cooked adzuki beans: 1 cup Garlic clove: 1 Lemon juice (1 lemon): 2 tablespoons Tahini: 2 tablespoons Parsley: 1 tablespoons Cumin (ground): ½ teaspoon Ginger (ground): ½ teaspoon Paprika or chili powder: ¼ teaspoon Olive oil: 1 tablespoon Water Salt and pepper: to taste Sesame seeds: to garnish
2. Adzuki Bean And Sweet Potato Patties
This recipe is for those days when you are all pumped up about cooking something nice, tasty, crispy, and indulgent. Also, when you are fighting the urge to have potatoes, you chose the healthier version – sweet potatoes!
Sweet potatoes (or yam): 1 large Adzuki beans (canned): 15 oz. or 1 cup of cooked beans Dill leaves: 10-15 washed Onion: 1 small, super finely chopped Multigrain flakes or flour: 2-4 tablespoons (optional) Mixed spices or garam masala: ½ teaspoon Chili powder or flakes: ½ teaspoon Olive oil: 1 tablespoon Breadcrumbs: ¼ cup
Note: You can add oats, quinoa, and other whole grains of your choice for the crunch in your patties. Oh man! Mouthwatering is an understatement! I’m sure you’d want to try these recipes out. But before you start cooking, here are a few pointers to keep in mind.
Points To Remember While Cooking Adzuki Beans
You need to soak adzuki beans for at least 1-2 hours before cooking. So, plan your cooking accordingly. You have to boil the soaked and washed adzuki beans on high heat for about 30 minutes. Pressure cooking is a quicker option to get soft and sweet beans. You can store cooked adzuki beans in the refrigerator for prolonged usage. Make sure you don’t leave any water in the storage container.
After soaking the adzuki beans, drain the water and leave about 1-2 tablespoons of water behind. Transfer the beans, along with the water, to a shallow pan and leave it open to air for 3-4 days. Once sprouted, rinse the sprouts well in cold water, drain, get rid of extra moisture, and store in a container. If you want to refrigerate the sprouts, keep rinsing them every day in freshwater and change the container. This way, no molds will form, and you can store them for 7 days!
So, is it alright if you have only adzuki beans in all your meals, seven days a week? Here’s the answer.
What Are The Side Effects Of Adzuki Beans?
There are no fatal side effects or risks associated with adzuki beans. Yay! But, hold on! One of the most common problems we all face with these legumes and lentils is gas or flatulence. The same holds true for adzuki beans as well. If you consume half-cooked or spoilt adzuki sprouts, you might have:
Gas Mild diarrhea, or Nausea
Ideally, half to one cup of adzuki beans per day will give you enough carbs, proteins, and calories while filling your tummy. What is the difference between adzuki beans and red beans? The term ‘red beans’ can be used to describe both adzuki and kidney beans. Kidney beans are twice the size of adzuki beans and have a characteristic kidney shape. Do adzuki beans contain estrogen? No. However, their extracts have been shown to exert estrogen-like effects (9). Can adzuki beans cause constipation? Yes. According to anecdotal evidence, adzuki beans may cause bloating and constipation if consumed in excess.
