I made this salad for my lunch today. I was reminded yesterday reading Carl’s post on his vegetarian haggis how good aduki beans are, they’re the puy lentil of the bean world for me. They’re flavoursome, the taste reminds me of black-eye beans/peas and being so small they give you a lovely texture and if that’s not enough they cook incredibly quickly, these today were cooked in less than 20 mins.
When cooking dried beans I’ll cook the whole packet and then store half of it in the freezer until another day. Here I dressed them while warm in a vinaigrette (while warm they’ll soak up the dressing) but why not add a couple tablespoons of creamy ranch dressing instead, Monica has finally posted her recipe here.
Aduki / Azuki Bean Salad
- 1/2 pack, 250g aduki beans, soaked overnight
- 1 fresh bouquet garni, whatever hardy herbs you have/like (I have parsley stalks, thyme, bay leaf)
- 1 teaspoons of salt
- freshly ground pepper, but you can add all sorts here, smoked paprika, toasted cumin would be good
- A handful of your favourite salad vegetables, I had yellow pepper, long stem broccoli, cucumber, mushrooms
- A handful of fresh herbs, I added lots of parsley, some coriander, chives, basil
- Your favourite dressing, I added 3 tablespoons of extra virgin oil, 1 tablespoon of sherry vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard, 1/2 tablespoon of honey
Once the beans have been soaked overnight cook them in plenty of water with the salt and bouquet garni, bring them to the boil and on a gentle boil they should be ready after 20 mins until they’re soft to your liking. Check after 15 mins.
Add your favourite salad vegetables. I briefly blanched the broccoli.
In the same pan the beans were cooked, I heated a little olive oil added the mushrooms cooked them on a high heat for 2 minutes stirring now and again.
Took the mushrooms off the heat and added my dressing ingredients.
Made sure it was all tossed nicely.
And the warm dressing is added to the salad beans.
This is the type of salad I will happily eat it on its own or as an accompaniment.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Beautiful Azelia, I love ‘painting’ with the colours of food like this and the flavours with a warm dressing would have been gorgeous.
The adzuki beans are a great ingredient, I hadn;t used them for a while before the haggis. They are now going to be a firm fixture in the kitchen and taste good sprouted too.
Thanks for the link back
Carl
Likewise Carl, I had forgotten all about the little aduki until yesterday, and this is the beauty of the foodie community
That salad looks beautiful and what a great idea for my adzuki bean stash! Those little mushrooms are so cute.
Eu que também sou um bastante inclinada para a comida vegetariana, adoro o feijão azuki. Quando vi a tua receita lembrei-me que tinha alguns congelados e resolvi fazer uma boa porção de hummus com nozes. Humm…
Obrigada pela inspiração.