Adzuki Bean Recipes

Down-to-earth ways with food popular for 35 years

ON the window of the Down To Earth wholefoods shop on Sharrowvale Road, Hunters Bar, is a photo of the co-operative which ran it back in 1985 including present boss, John Leeson.

John, now 50, doesn’t look a great deal different. It must be all those years of eating brown rice and soya beans.

This year Down To Earth is celebrating its 35th birthday and John his quarter century there. “It sort of crept up on us. We didn’t realise until June,” he says, referring to the shop’s co-owner Joe Grainger, the only other survivor from that photograph.

The business was founded in 1973 in Crookes-moor when a group of students formed a co-op to buy in bulk for friends. The next year they opened a small shop with £800 capital provided by founders Dik Waring and Paul Jackson. In 1976 they upped sticks to Sharrowvale Road, where it has been ever since.

John, an out-of-work tobacco kiosk assistant, strolled in one day circa 1985 (it’s a bit hazy now) for his wheatgerm and noticed a sign asking for another member of the co-operative. He applied.

“It paid £70 a week and as I was single with a rent of £17 it seemed like a good idea,” he says, in the shop which has hardly changed since then. The facia has been up since it started and a man comes back from Wales every so often to inspect the shelves he built in the Eighties.

On them you will find local honey and almond butter, tahini, vegetable stock, wild blueberry jam and soya custard, enough nuts to send an army of squirrels into delirium, organic coconut flakes and yellow split peas.

But it’s the bins at the back of the shop full of three kinds of muesli, made to a special recipe, and several varieties of porridge oats which customers keep coming back for more. They are regular in more ways than one.

“The bowels of Hunters Bar are forever grateful to Down To Earth,” laughs John.

When he arrived the shop was a co-operative with six or seven members who, on a sunny day, would close and picnic in Endcliffe Park.

Campbell Soup Recipes: Chinese Style Red Bean Paste (Adzuki ...

Note the bags are smaller than you are probably imagining.. I used more than 1 bag for 24 steam buns. This is a little sweeter than I'd like, but I'm sure all packaged bean paste is pretty sweet. It's very easy to squeeze out what you need, and you can avoid the canned taste. A bit expensive, but convenient and tasty. Also, in case you're confused by the suggestion to put this in soups like I was, this is quite sweet, and really just for desserts. Adzuki Beans are a Chinese and Japanese favorite (also known as aduki) and have a similar flavor to red beans, but it is very delicious with less starchy. A good source of protein and fiber, they are delicious in soups and can be substituted for red and pinto beans in other tasty recipes. The Read bean paste is possible used for sweet soup, making bun, ice cream, sandwish.

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