beans

I remember 'getting into' pulses about ten years ago but it's not since I moved to japan that I really found out the versatility - even of the humble soy bean alone. soy makes up a crucial part of my diet from tofu, soy milk, miso and natto to name just the main sources. we've been eating a lot of south asian food recently and yuka mixed tapioca with mung beans to make a rare dessert which certainly satisfied my sweet tooth. the tapioca was mixed with coconut cream and peaches and the mung beans cooked down with sugar. pure magic.

the azuki bean is probably the most common bean used for sweet stuff though - it's widely used in ice cream, sugary soup with mochi, added to jelly, boiled down to make anko paste when mixed with sugar and I eat it on an almost daily basis. there are worse vices I suppose.