Vegan Aduki Bean Pumpkin Stew - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 cup dried aduki beans
5 cm square dried kombu
3 cups water
3 cups pumpkin, chopped (sweet potato also works well)
shoyu or tamari

Preparation

Place kombu in the bottom of a heavy based pot, add washed and drained aduki beans and 3 cups water.
Bring to the boil then simmer until beans are tender (approximately 40 minutes). While cooking, you may need to add more water a few times, but do not stir beans!
When beans are tender add chopped pumpkin making sure that beans are still covered with water.
Cover and cook for 20 minutes or until pumpkin is tender.
Using a wooden spoon, mix beans and pumpkin lightly together and add shoyu or tamari to taste.
Notes:Like lentils and other light beans, aduki do not really need soaking, however for improved digestibility wash and soak with kombu for 2 - 5 hours. Aduki beans (also called adzuki or adanka) are high in protein but very low in the amino acids methionine and cystine, and need to be correctly combined with other grains in order to form a 'complete' protein. Consisting of 68% carbohydrate, 22% protein, 5% fibre and 5% fat, aduki beans are a great addition to the diet. They are also high in iron, B5, B6, magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc, phosphorus and Vitamin A, but low in sodium.
Thanks to Sandra Dubs (originally published in Aduki magazine - Spring 2006).