Whole rice with azuki beans and chesnuts

Learn how to cook this fantastic recipe which will provide you with the natural sweetness your body needs in Autumn and Winter. It´s quick, delicious and healthy!


INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 cup of rice (washed and pan-toasted until lightly golden)
  • ½ cup of de hokkaido azukis* washed and pan-toasted.
  • 1 handful of peeled chesnuts**
  • 2 cups of filtered water.
  • Unrefined sea salt.

*They´ll be more tender if you soak them for a few hours. Toasted them though will produce a similar effect. Do use Hokkaido azuki beans. If regular ones are used, then you must soak them overnight.

**To peel the chesnuts cut on one of the sides and then pan-fry them with a little bit of water (10 min) until the skin starts to pull off. Then you can peel them.


PREPARATION:

  1. Put all three ingredientes in a pressure cooker with the water and the salt.

  2. Bring to boil, then close the pressure cooker.
  3. When the valve is up lower the fire to a minimum, put a flame deflector under the pan and cook for 45 minutes.
  4. Then open the pressure cooker and serve immediately.
  5. Después abrir la olla y servir caliente.

Yes, there´s that kind of cosy winter feel in the air. It is here now.

You get home in a rush and you have to eat something. You are tired and nothing comes to mind. But you don´t want to sacrifice your health owing to this hectic lifestyle we all lead. Here´s a suggestion: a dish full of naturally sweet taste now that winter is here, in order for your organs to relax and your thoughts to calm down. Introducing a great combination: rice, azuki beans and chesnuts. This dish has great benefits. On the one hand it provides HBV protein (which we get when we combine whole grains and beans) plus complex carbohydrates that give us that kind of slow energy we need which does not stress out the pancreas. Azuki beans are among the very few alkaline beans. They go fantastic together with rice and chesnuts. Chesnuts remind me of… Xmas! They bring back so many heart-warming childhood memories. It´s hard for me to think about a chesnut-free Xmas… mmm… those nice hand-warming roasted chestnuts for those cold-numb fingers of mine as I walked down the street…

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do. Remember in winter we want to have foods which nourish us and protect us, particularly the kidney area. Azuki beans are ideal for that purpose. Nourish your kidneys and you will nourish your well-being, because that´s where your essence, your vital energy resides, according to oriental philosophy.

Enjoy!