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Soup

Azuki Bean Soup

A sweet soup of azuki beans, lotus seeds, and tangerine peel, sweetened with brown sugar.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and lotus work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 4 recipes mention both. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the azuki beans in water for several hours to soften them (it's easiest to soak them overnight).

  2. Drain the beans.

Simmer

  1. Bring the 5 cups of water with the tangerine peel to a boil in a medium saucepan.

  2. Turn the heat down, add the adzuki beans and lotus seeds, and simmer, partially covered, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the beans are softened to the point where they are just beginning to break apart.

  3. Add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved.

  4. Taste and add more sugar if desired.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cold.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beans + lotustop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Beans + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Tangerine + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together112 recipes
  4. Lotus + sugartop 24% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together12 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Tangerine + lotustop 30% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1 recipe

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Azuki beans
Provide the main body and starchy texture of the soup as they soften and break apart.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth that balances the beans.
Lotus seeds
Add a soft, creamy texture and mild flavor to the simmered soup.

The step that matters

Simmering until the beans are just beginning to break apart. Beans cook slowly and unevenly; undercooked beans stay firm and grainy, while overcooking makes them mushy and can split the skins. Partial covering keeps the liquid from reducing too fast while the beans soften.

Flavor stand-ins for the tangerine

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, lotus, sugar):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Orangebetter flavor fit
  3. Mangobetter flavor fit
  4. Tangerinethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, lotus, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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