THE CHINESE BEANS - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 64

• Make an excellent purée by cooking them with salt, black pepper, and thinly
sliced scallions. Or make a deliciously thick fava bean soup, redolent of thyme
and basil, as a warm welcome to guests on a winter's day.
DRIED BEANS . Since they have a short season in Connecticut, I am particularly grateful
that fava beans dry beautifully, just as other beans do, and can be kept indefinitely in
this state. With dried beans you can:
• Cook them like navy beans in casseroles and other slow-cooking dishes.
• Simmer until tender and add to rice-and-vegetable medleys along with a bit of
basil, a few tomatoes, tomato paste, and some chopped onion.
Adzuki Bean
X IAO H ONG D OU , S IU H UHNG D AU
Vigna angularis
(color photo, page xi)
Adzuki beans have been cultivated in Asia for thousands of years. Also known as aduki
beans or red beans, the Japanese call them azuki. They have a somewhat sweeter flavor
than most beans, and this has led to their use in Asian desserts.