Zenzai ぜんざい (or Oshiruko お汁粉) is Azuki red bean soup, and this warm sweet is often enjoyed during cold winter. Today I made the green tea version Matcha Zenzai 抹茶ぜんざい, which is also very popular in Japanese cafes and restaurants that serve sweets.
Enjoy Matcha Zenzai All Year Round
As many of you know, I absolutely love anything with matcha. What I like the best about this treat is that it can be enjoyed all year round. Matcha Zensai can be served cold during the hot summer days or served hot in the cold winter months. It’s very quick to make too if you suddenly have guests visiting and need to serve some snacks or dessert. It’s a perfect little treat for tea time with your friends or after-dinner dessert for your family.
Matcha for Matcha Zenzai
The traditional zenzai uses azuki red bean for the soup but this zenzai uses matcha (green tea powder) instead. Therefore, the matcha you use should be of culinary quality. If you’re new to matcha or interested in which matcha brand I use, please read here. As this is a dessert recipe and not the traditional matcha drink, sugar is added to the soup. You might already know that matcha can be bitter (well, it is bitter), so please adjust the amount of sugar in the recipe according to your liking. Keep in mind the amount of sweetness will also depend on how sweet the anko is.
Anko (Sweet Azuki Red Bean Paste)
If you use store-bought anko, it’s quite sweet already. I recommend following my recipe below exactly for your matcha soup. Homemade anko does taste much better than store-bought so if you have time, I hope you will try my Homemade Anko recipe. It’s really delicious and definitely worth spending the extra effort. If you’re purchasing anko, I recommend Ogura-an brand which has the perfect consistency for this dessert.
Mochi or Shiratama Dango
Zenzai usually includes toasted (plain) mochi or Shiratama Dango. I personally enjoy eating the red bean soup with the little charred crispy mochi, but I know Japanese rice cakes (kiri mochi) can be hard to get in some countries. Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
