Adzuki and Me

In addition to my love for music and art, some of you already know that I am a big fan of things I can put in my mouth. Like food. And drinks. To name but a few. I have been cooking a lot at home this last year, as an attempt to save a little bit of money and stave off the boredom of eating the same things everyday, which I tend to do. I've been experimenting with beans a lot, especially as I am not much of a meat eater (I don't eat "cute meats" and only eat fowl and fish about 3% of the time), and I've come up with a few staples that I can whip up tout de suite. Namely, a black bean and edamame salad (I thought I made this up but my friend Gail pointed out that she actually made it first and I totally copied. Oops) and white bean spicy hummus.

I remembered that my mom had given me a vegan cookbook a couple years back--I am not a vegan, clearly, but I have been eschewing most milk products for soy which is wreaking such havoc on my hormones but that is another topic for another blog...anyway I was bored with my black bean repertoire and needed something new and different to spice things up a bit.



Vegan Planet, by Robin Robertson, is a fun intro to Vegan cooking, and I found the perfect recipe for a Middle Eastern bean-lover such as myself: Quinoa Tabbouleh with Adzuki beans.

Now, I had never even heard of an Adzuki bean, much less know what one tasted like, but I trusted Robin and her option to include Adzuki beans in the Tabbouleh. Where does one even find an Adzuki bean? I went straight to my favorite health food store, Perelandra in Brooklyn Heights, and they had dried organic ones in their bulk section (I had to maneuver around a woman who was totally hogging up the bulk food room with her 500 bags of stuff, but I survived).

Adzuki beans are these tiny little pinkish Asian beans that don't get much bigger when you stick them in water. They taste sort of like dirt but in a good way, and add a good amount of protein to a dish--that paired with the quinoa and you are packing a pretty hefty meal, my friends.

I adapted the recipe to my taste, because I must have been a heavy smoker in my former life or something--I always need twice as much seasoning as the recipe calls for. In a nutshell:

1 cup prepared quinoa
2 medium tomatoes (the recipe calls for yellow but I used regular ones)
a bunch of red onion (I eyeballed it, around 1/4 c I guess?)
a bunch of adzuki beans (approx 1/2 to 3/4 c)
lots of cilantro
1/3 c olive oil
a lemon
salt and pepper

I mixed up the tomato, cilantro, onion, and salt and pepper in a bowl, poured the beans in and mixed it together, then added the quinoa once it cooled down. I prepared the dressing: the olive oil, lots of salt and pepper and an entire lemon, and poured it all over, mixing it all together. I stuck it in the fridge for about 1/2 an hour. The cookbook suggests an hour, but I really couldn't wait. I also topped it all off with some labneh , which I pretty much put on top of everything. It was nom nom nom good.


I'm drinking a decent Australian Cab along with it, because that is what I had on hand, but this would taste really good with a Mojito or some sort of lemonade. Next time!