Beans and Pulses · FFET10409
Adzuki bean (red bean)
Small red adzuki beans are cooked with rice, in porridge and sweet soups, or made into bean paste fillings.
Soybeans and the other pulses: mung, adzuki and broad beans.
Adzuki beans are small red beans with the scientific name Vigna angularis, also called xiaodou and chidou in Chinese. They are cooked with rice, made into porridge or sweet soups, and processed into bean paste for buns, mooncakes and pastries.
What
Adzuki beans, also called xiaodou and chidou in Chinese, are small red beans of the species Vigna angularis. The “red bean” of love poems is said to possibly be a different plant and is not covered here.2,3
When
An old agricultural text identifies ten days after the summer solstice as the best sowing time for small beans. Another historical account describes harvesting red beans when the pods are partly green and partly yellow. These are agricultural timings recorded in historical texts.1,2
Where
Wild adzuki beans occur in the southeastern Himalayas and south-central China. A historical account also describes red beans as widely grown between the Yangtze and Huai rivers.2,3
How
Adzuki beans can be cooked with rice, simmered in porridge or sweet soups, or made into bean paste fillings.3
Why
Adzuki beans can be cooked whole or made into sweet bean paste for buns, mooncakes and pastries.3
Impact and influence
Historical accounts describe people eating red beans in Guanxi, Hebei and the Bian-Luo region.2