Azuki beans in the rice cooker = You. Had. Me. At. Hello.

I read one post on The Front Burner about the versatility of rice cookers and I was sold.

Do you have a rice cooker? Make beans in it.  Don’t have one? Buy one.

I essentially did everything wrong. I didn’t soak my beans overnight and I didn’t save the “extras” (everything after beans/water/broth) for later.  In the morning I rinsed some azuki beans, tossed them in the rice cooker with lots of other good stuff, and set the timer to begin cooking ten hours later.  They were perfect.

Here’s the recipe:

JL’s Rice Cooker Azuki Beans

• 1 cup azuki beans, rinsed
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1T earth balance
• clove of garlic
• splash of Merlot
• bay leaf
• dash of dulse flakes
• sea salt to taste
• fresh ground pepper to taste

In the morning combine all ingredients in the rice cooker and set the timer to begin in the evening (my version of “soaking”)  Cook for one hour on the regular setting. Serve and feel smug about your perfect beans that cooked in an hour, no stirring required!

Wednesday night I served the beans over a baked sweet potato and added Daiya cheddar vegan cheese and diced avocado, with roasted bok choy on the side.

Seriously, what’s better than hearty beans over a sweet potato?

Thursday night I decided to try an azuki bean pizza.  I made my Tomato Sauce and mashed a 1/2 cup of leftover azuki beans into the sauce.  Simply drizzle olive oil on both sides of a brown rice wrap, spread the azuki bean/tomato sauce over the tortilla, add massaged kale (drizzle olive oil over kale, add sea salt and massage the leaves with your hands), onion and Daiya mozzarella vegan cheese

Bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes, directly on the rack.  YUMMY! (Thanks to Gena at Choosing Raw for posting a tortilla pizza recipe this week to remind me how easy, and delicious, they can be!)

Do you have a rice cooker?

Tags: adzuki beansazuki beanspizzarice cookersweet potatothe front burner

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