My daughter’s verdict on this marriage of favourite ingredients in the diet of the Okinawans, famous for their longevity, was “Weird, but good”.
Let me know what you think!
I haven’t specified quantities in the recipe below, as it’s very much a ‘chuck it together’ kind of deal.
Ingredients:
Ice cream
Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (kumara)
Ground ginger
Plant milk (oat, almond, whole-bean soy)
Red bean paste
5 tbsp date paste*
2/3 cup cooked aduki beans (Japanese red beans)
Method:
Bake sweet potatoes in their skins at 180°C until they’re very soft and oozing caramel. Allow to cool, the pull off their skins and mash with ground ginger, to taste. Scoop into an ice cube tray and freeze until solid.
Pop frozen sweet potato cubes out of the ice cube tray and transfer to a high-powered blender. Blend on high speed until smooth and creamy, adding plant milk as required.
To make red bean paste, blend date paste and cooked aduki beans at high speed until smooth.
Scoop into serving bowls and swirl the red bean paste through the ice cream.
* Place pitted dates in a saucepan, add just enough water to cover them, bring the water to the boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes, depending on how hard the dates are. When dates are mushy, remove from the heat, cool, then transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth. Store leftovers in the fridge.
