uses for the adzuki bean: a jimjil heat pack!
These days we haven’t been able to go to the jimjilbang sauna, due to the COVID-19 problem. And as I’m a sauna/ jimjilbang fan, that’s disappointing.
However, all is not lost as there are LOTS of products on the market designed to simulate the positive health benefits of the heat from a sauna!
And we just got this pressie from my sister-in-law. It’s called a jimjil pack which you can just roll up and pop in the microwave for a couple of minutes.
Then you put it around your shoulders to build up a relaxing sauna-like sweat.
A possibly surprising point about the jimjil pack is that it’s stuffed with adzuki beans. So after I heated it up and put it around my shoulders I started to smell the familiar aroma!
Adzuki beans are known to have health benefits in East Asia. (I see some similar Japanese products are available on Amazon.)
The shape is made to fit around the shoulders nicely, but you can put it across your tummy or wrap it around your arms or legs as well! Actually, there are a whole range of products from eye patches to heated slippers.
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ADZUKI BEAN TO EXPEL EVIL SPIRITS
But red adzuki beans have lots of other uses. Along with salt, red beans have also been used in their raw form to get rid of evil spirits!
Weddings
So at a traditional wedding, red adzuki beans are one of the ‘five grains’ given to the bride by the groom’s family. Each of the five have a symbolic meaning: for example cotton seeds symbolize prosperity. Then there’s glutinous rice for a long and happy married life. And red beans are meant to dispel the unwanted ghosts and evil spirits.
Funerals
In our house, we have a little pot of salt by the door. And if anyone’s come straight from a funeral, they have to get a few grains of salt thrown on them before they can enter to keep the evil forces away.
But according to the folk customs encyclopaedia, it was tradition to carry some red beans to a funeral for the same reason.
ADZUKI BEAN DISHES
And of course, you can eat adzuki beans too.
They are used in lots of popular dishes from hot adzuki bean porridge to the topping for shaved ice dessert!
Is Bingsu tasty? A shaved ice dessert
patjuk: a sweet adzuki bean porridge for winter
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