Serves 4.
- Prep time: 10min
- Cook time: 1h 10min
- Total time: 1h 20min
- Difficulty: Basic
This healthy, nutritious and comforting soup will keep you warm during chilly winter days. It’s extremely versatile so you can add all sorts of different vegetables to it and instead of adzuki you can use any other kind of beans you like. It’s especially delicious finished with some fresh cilantro and a dollop of yogurt.
Ingredients:
- 150g dried Adzuki beans, (or400g cooked beans)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 red chilli pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 purple onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large carrot, diced
- 1/4 celeriac root, diced
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground chilli
- generous pinch of dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 300g butternut squashed, peeled and cut into 1 cm pieces
- 1 l vegetable or chicken stock
- some salt
- freshly ground pepper
Directions:
Put Adzuki beans in a bowl and cover with cold water. Leave overnight to soak. The next day, drain the beans, put them into a pot and cover with a litre of cold water. Add a pinch of cumin seeds or dried kombu. Simmer on low-medium heat for 35-40 minutes and drain.
In a large pot heat olive oil. Add cumin and corriander seeds, chilli pepper and ground corrianderand and cook briefly. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Then add carrot and celeriac root and season with salt and pepper. Add tomato puree, smoked paprika, ground chilli and dried thyme and cook for a few minutes. Pour vegetable or chicken stock over the vegetables, add bay leaf and cook until it starts to boil. Put the lid on and cook on low heat until the carrot is soft, around 15 minutes. Add butternut squash and cook for 6-8 minutes. In the end, add the beans and cook for a few more minutes, or until the beans are reheated. Add more stock or water if necessary.
Sprinkle with fresh cilantro and serve with whole wheat bread and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream.
Commentary.
Category: Soups & stews, Vegetarian
Adzuki bean is cultivated in Japan and China and it is the second most popular legume in Japan after the soybean. These small, red beans are versatile and may be eaten dried or fresh or even ground into flour to make sweet cakes. Adzuki beans have strong nutty flavor and are high in carbohydrates and dietary fiber, rich in protein and several vitamins and minerals. They have to be soaked in water for at least two hours before cooking. If you can’t get hold of adzuki, use any other kind of beans in this soup.