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Sekihan (Japanese Azuki Bean Rice) is steamed rice cooked with azuki red beans, topped with black sesame seeds. It’s always served on happy occasions in Japan.
What are some of the celebratory dishes in your culture? In Japan, we have quite a number of foods that we eat on special occasions. One of them is Sekihan (赤飯) or Japanese Azuki Bean Rice. To usher in the upcoming Japanese New Year, let’s learn how to make this beautiful bean and rice dish today.
What is Sekihan?
Sekihan (赤飯) translates to “red rice” in Japanese as the glutinous rice is tinted with an attractive shade of red from cooking with Azuki beans. The red color of the rice symbolizes happiness and prosperity. It’s a traditional dish served on many happy and celebratory occasions, such as New Year, the birth of baby, birthdays, festivals, and weddings.
Traditionally Sekihan is made of 100% glutinous rice (you might also call it sweet rice or mochigome). It is very filling and can be heavy on the stomach, so a lot of people started mixing in regular Japanese short-grain rice.
There are also regional varieties of the Sekihan. Some versions use a pinch of sugar instead of salt to give a sweet flavor, and some use other mixture of beans instead of Azuki beans.
The unique thing about Sekihan is that we sometimes serve it at room temperature. For regular steam rice, we don’t do that unless it’s served as rice balls (Onigiri).
Azuki Red Beans in Japanese Cuisine
In Japanese cooking, Azuki beans (or Adzuki beans) are almost exclusively used in making Japanese sweets or pastries. The beans are smashed and sweetened and used as fillings in Daifuku Mochi, Manju, Dorayaki, Red Bean Ice Cream, Anpan, and so on.
For this instance, however, Azuki beans make a rare appearance in a non-sweet dish that is rather unique to Japanese cuisine. It replicates the ancient red rice in Japan and brings many great meanings for the culture.
Look for Azuki red beans in Japanese or Asian grocery stores, or on Amazon.
Quick Tips on Making Sekihan
Use Japanese glutinous rice
It’s important to use the Japanese short-grain sweet rice/glutinous rice for this recipe. It is not the same as Thai or Chinese long-grain glutinous rice. Look for it in Japanese grocery stores. On the rice packages, the labels should indicate mochi gome or もち米. You can read more about it on our pantry page.
Soak Azuki Beans
Soaking the dried red beans for at least half a day or overnight will help to reduce the cooking time drastically. The water also absorbs some of the “complex sugars’ in the beans that cause gas. And you’ll get the best texture from beans, with fewer slit-ups.
Cook the rice using a rice cooker
Most Japanese households prepare Sekihan using a rice cooker as it is convenient, fast, and offer a consistent result. You can cook it using a pot just like the old-time, but I’ve never done it. If you don’t own a rice cooker but wish to make the recipe, feel free to look it up online.
Once the rice is cooked, sprinkle Sekihan with Gomashio (ごま塩), a mixture of toasted black sesame and salt. The rice has such a toothsome texture and wonderful fragrance from the red beans that it is so delicious on its own.
Let’s Celebrate with Sekihan
We have a saying ‘Let’s have sekihan‘ which means ‘Let’s celebrate’! I hope you get a chance to make this tasty auspicious dish on your next special day.
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Sekihan literary means “red rice” in Japanese because the rice is red from cooking with Azuki beans. It’s a traditional dish served during the New Year, births of baby, birthdays, festivals, weddings, or any kind of celebration.
- ½ rice cooker cup Azuki beans (90 ml; see Step 1)
- 3 rice cooker cups sweet rice/glutinous rice (Mochigome) (540 ml)
- ½ rice cooker cup uncooked Japanese short-grain rice (90 ml)
- 2 ½ cups water
- ½ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt)
- toasted black sesame seeds (or Gomashio, optional)
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Gather all the ingredients.
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Wash azuki beans and soak for half a day (or overnight).
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Combine both glutinous rice and Japanese short-grain rice into a bowl and wash them thoroughly (See Step 1-4 on). Drain the rice for 30 minutes.
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Put azuki beans in a small pot (don't use a large pot). Put water to
just
cover the beans (you don’t want to put water too much here) and bring it to a boil on high heat.
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Once it boils, turn off the heat and transfer the beans into a sieve to drain the water.
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Put azuki beans back in the pot and add 2½ cup water. Bring it to a boil on high heat. Once it boils, turn down the heat to low and cover the lid. Keep it simmering for 15 minutes (it depends on Azuki beans). Beans are done when you can smash a bean with your fingers.
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When it’s done, reserve the cooking red water and beans separately in a bowl. Use plastic wrap to cover the beans so it doesn’t dry out and crack. Let them cool down completely.
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Add rice into the rice cooker bowl. Pour the reserved water in the rice cooker bowl until 3 cups line for Sweet Rice (or a little bit below 3 cups line for White Rice if you don’t have Sweet Rice option). If you don’t have enough reserved water, add water to make it to 3 cups. Then add beans and salt. Mix and start cooking.
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When it’s done cooking, keep the lid closed for an additional 15 minutes. Stir the rice gently and serve. Sprinkle gomashio or toasted black sesame if you like.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
(Not sure my previous comment worked. Sorry if it is a doublon).
Hi and thank you for this goo website.
Usualy recipes call for rice to be cooked in a rice cooker or in a pot with water.
Yet in some books, the rice is laid on a clothe in a bambou steam basket on top of the pot. The rice is then covered with the clothe and during the cooking time some liquid is adding directly on the rice.
Does this second method have a specific name?
What are its pro and cons taste wise?
Thanks a lot!!!
Adrien
Hi Adrien! I didn’t see your first comment, so I’m glad you left another comment again. Sorry about the trouble.
I’m happy to hear you enjoy my site, and thank you for your kind words. These days rice cooker is pretty high tech that you can make very good sekihan using rice cooker. I’m not very familiar with the method you mentioned. My grandma used to make it with pressure cooker but my mom and I use rice cooker to make sekihan. I’m sorry I cannot be a good help here. Hope you will find out your answer online. 🙂
My mom says something to the effect that the sweet rice can get gummy if boiled by itself in a pot, which is no good for a special occasion. So they would steam the rice. But it was a headache to steam the rice, so she would mix in some regular rice for the texture and/or used an electric rice cooker.
But I might have misunderstood, so take that with a grain of salt … and black sesame seed 🙂
Thank you for sharing Ken! Yeah, the steaming is the traditional method. It takes time and care but a lot of people believe it makes better Sekihan. I believe it!
In your instructions Is this a misprint?
“Combine both rice into one and wash rice (See Step 1-4 on How To Make Rice). Drain the rice for 30 minutes.”
or Should this be “soak” the rice for 30 min?
Thank you
Hi Gene! I responded to you via email, but I’m responding again on the comment in case others have a same question.
For this recipe, I did not soak rice. You could soak rice for 30 minutes and drain for 16-30 minutes. Hope that helps. 🙂
Thank you for asking! 🙂
This recipe is awesome! I was just looking for the recipe that my grandmother used to make and I found it. Thanks a lot!
Hi Liliam! I hope you enjoy this recipe! 🙂
My japanese mother is no longer able to make this and my kids had been bugging me to find out a recipe. Well, we finally tried it this weekend and thank you so much, we are once again enjoying a favorite dish. I couldn’t believe it was this easy.
Hi Lee! I’m so happy to hear you and your children enjoyed my Sekihan recipe! Thank you very much for taking your time to write the feedback. 🙂
Thank you so very much for all your wonderful recipes. I tried the sekihan today and it was great.
Happy Holidays to you.
Hi J! I’m so happy to hear you liked this recipe! Thank you for trying this recipe! Happy holidays to you and your family!
Hi Nami !
It been a while since I haven’t tried one of your recipe and it’s already cooking~ I can’t wait >w<
I hope you're doing well with your family :3
Hi Jin-chan! Thank you! My family and I are doing well. Always busy and crazy. 😀 Hope you enjoy the recipe! 🙂
Hello, Thank you for sharing your recipes.
I have used your sweet red bean paste recipe and am going to try your sekihan recipe next. My son’s girl friend is from Japan so I am trying to learn how to make dishes she will enjoy!
Thanks again.
Hi Cynthia! I hope you enjoy this recipe! She’ll be thrilled to see Sekihan. We usually serve this rice on a happy celebratory occasion. 🙂
I haven’t used this recipe but every time I make sekihan, the beans are always too hard no matter how long I soak them ( I have tried soaking them for a week once) or boil them. Is there something I am doing or does this mean the beans are old?
Hi Esther! You’re correct. When Azuki beans are old, no matter how you cook them, they will be hard. 🙂
I have a question. When the recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of water…is that the rice cooker cup or a standard measuring cup?
Hi Bond! It’s regular 2 1/2 cups. 🙂
Thank You, Nami-san for your response to my question about measuring cup for water. You said to use a standard cup measure….., that is what I did.
I was making sekihan to take to a church pot luck meal for this past Sunday. I followed your recipe and it was a big hit and I was very proud. (I ordered some heirloom adzuki beans (Hokkido) and I already had sweet rice. I cooked it in a Jirurushi rice cooker. I was very surprised by how quickly it cooked ….about 7 mins.
I was interested in your recent travel report about Kyushu….I am married to a man who was born and raised in Fukaoka prefecture and we have visited many time over the years. My two favorite places in Kyushu are Yanagowa and Ufuin (we were in Ufuin in the springtime and saw the wild azaleas on the mountain side. My third favorite place was a side trip from Ebuski…to an outdoor resturant where they had tables with whirlpools of swirling water and they put the somen in the cool fresh water from the Mountains. There were fish swimming in pools and streams ….. they may have been on the menu too ???? we just had the somen and dipping sauce.
Hi Bond! I’m so glad to hear your church friends enjoyed it! Wow with your Hokkaido azuki beans I’m sure it was extra delicious!
You have been to Kyushu! It was really nice trip and we can’t wait to go back again next year. Yufuin was nice too. We need more days to travel around the entire Kyushu as it’s big! Thank you for sharing your story with us!
Can I please ask what do you usually eat the sweet rice and red beans with? Like fish? Vegetables? Pickled foods?
Hi Karen! We use this rice as if we eat steamed rice. It goes well with Japanese theme meal, mostly fish, and all the side dishes. 🙂
So am I the first person to ask what to do with the now cold beans? Throw them away? They just disappear from the recipe. Poor adzuki beans…
Thank you for finding out the error. It’s been fixed.
Hi Nami, I was wondering if you have ever used canned azuki beans in this recipe?
Thanks,
Kari
Hi Kari! They are cooked and sweeten, right? For this recipe, you will need to use actual beans as flavors will come out while cooking the beans with rice.
Hi Nami, one question. In step 8 you mention adding beans twice. When should they go into the pot, before or after adding the water? Thank you!
Hi Ana! Thank you so much! It’s been a while since I wrote this recipe, and glad to find out this mistake. I deleted one of the “beans” text – beans should be added AFTER the water is measured correctly. 🙂 Thanks again! xo
I was wondering if you have tried to make the red beans in the instant pot? I know you have a recipe for azuki-an, but the beans would be over-cooked for this sekihan. Could you just cook the beans for a shorter amount of time?
Hi Lisa! Sekihan is one of the recipes that I want to try in Instant Pot. I am hoping to figure out the right texture… yes, cook shorter time and see? I hope I can find out easier way!
never made before but it was a hit! planning to make for my mom’s beiju bithday. can i cook the beans the day before and then cook with rice the next day? thank you!
Hi Lo! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! Happy birthday to your mom! It’s a big milestone and Sekihan is the right way to celebrate! 🙂 Yes, I think you can do that. 🙂
Nami can you prepare/cook the beans the day before?
Hi Lauren!
Yes. You can prepare the bean the day before. Please make sure to separate the beans and water and store them in a separate airtight container in the refrigerator.
We hope this helps!
I just made my first batch of sekihan and it came out great, thanks to your careful instructions! I did cut the rice amounts in half because I have a tiny rice cooker, and used an 8-grain mix instead of the short-grain white rice. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
Hi Carrie,
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are glad to hear it turned out great!