I'm always a strong believer of ...
We are what we eat
Eat well live well
... but what should we eat to stay healthy? Low fat? Low sugar? Low carb? Low calories? Atkins? Paleo diet? Raw food? Macrobiotic? Vegan? Detox? Vitamins?
I'm not a nutritionist and can't answer this question most appropriately. For me, I like to enjoy my food with moderation. I like to invest on fresh and good quality ingredients and like to cook or bake from scratch with good and honest ingredients as much as possible. Most importantly, my food has to taste good as good food makes me feel good... Happy tummy = Happy me! Agree?
Can sensuously delicious food be healthy too? Possible if we have a positive attitude to appreciate food. For me, I like to enjoy my food with flavours but it doesn't have to be extremely meaty, vegan, oily, creamy, spicy, salty and sweet. I'm after a good balance of taste and texture with reasonable amount of nutrition and this is what I see in these double chocolate adzuki bean brownies...
Why adzuki beans? According to Super Legumes, adzuki beans (also known as red beans) are high in their protein and fiber. It is a low fat plant food source and rich in calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. Their high soluble fiber can help to stabilise cholesterol levels, improve digestive health and keep you feeling full for longer.
Before baking these brownies, I started by cooking the beans.
Soak 195g (1 cup) dried adzuki beans in cold water overnight. Rinse and drain. Put them in a large saucepan, add water to cover the beans by 5 cm and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30-45 mins or until tender. Drain. - Please note this amount will produce more than 240g cooked adzuki beans with quite a significant amount of leftover. Sorry that I have forgotten to weigh the total amount of cooked beans and so can't tell how much you can reduce accordingly.
To avoid this cooking step, you can use one 400g tin adzuki beans, drained and rinsed and you will get 240g cooked adzuki beans. According to the book, you can also substitute adzuki beans with red kidney beans or black beans.
Thanks to Super Legumes. My family and I can enjoy these moist and chocolaty double chocolate adzuki brownies with good moderation, great taste and no worries!
Want more healthy treats like these?
With this book, you can eat your way to great health. You can enjoy guilt free cakes and bakes like these...
Happy tummy = Happy me
Happy me = Healthy me
Agree???
I hope that you will eat your way to great health with the foods made from Super Legumes. As this post is specially written to review this book, I'm sorry that I have agreed to the publisher that I can't publish the recipes in this book in this post. If you likes Super Legumes, you can to buy this newly published book at a retail price of AUD$29.99 in most retail or online book shops.
However, if you really wish to bake these less guilty brownies, please read my post in details, you will see that you can actually bake these brownies without a written recipe as I have fully illustrated the process of baking very thoroughly to you. *Hint*
Before ending this post, I like to thank Murdoch Books for giving me this opportunity to do this review. I like to make a disclaimer here that I'm not paid to do this and like to share my most honest opinions with everyone who read this review.
Happy Baking
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