Azuki (小豆, also adzuki) is the Japanese red bean Vigna angularis. The characters used to write the name mean "small bean", its counterpart "large bean" (大豆 daizu) being the soybean. In Chinese the azuki bean is known as hong xiao dou (红小豆), lit. "red small bean". This is commonly abbreviated to simply hong dou (红豆), "red bean".
Azuki beans are usually prepared by boiling the beans with sugar, resulting in a paste called an (餡) in Japanese and dou sha (豆沙) in Chinese. This is used in many desserts, such as:
The cartoon hero Anpanman is an antropomorphic bun filled with azuki bean paste.
Rice with azuki beans (赤飯 sekihan) is traditionally cooked for auspicious occasions, such as New Year. Azuki beans are also used to produce amanattō.
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