This vegan chocolate frosting is made with cooked adzuki beans — no coconut cream, no dairy, no soy.
Think of it as a lighter, Japanese-style vegan Nutella — but made with adzuki beans instead of hazelnuts. The beans’ natural bitterness and depth create a flavor surprisingly close to chocolate.
Just blend a few simple ingredients together for a smooth, pipeable frosting that holds its shape, even without refrigeration.
If you've tried my vegan chocolate truffles, this frosting uses the same base — just a little softer and ready to spread or pipe straight from the blender.
🤍 Why You'll Love This Frosting
- No coconut cream, dairy, or soy — just a few simple ingredients
- Heat-stable, so it pipes cleanly without melting
- Ready in minutes with a blender
Jump to:
🧺 What Are Adzuki Beans?
Adzuki beans are small red beans widely used in Japanese and East Asian cooking. In Japan, they are most often simmered with sugar and turned into anko, a sweet red bean paste used in traditional wagashi such as ohagi, daifuku, and dorayaki.
They are also used in savory dishes — for example, sekihan, a simple rice dish cooked with adzuki beans and finished with sesame salt, often served on special occasions. From everyday sweets to celebratory dishes, adzuki beans appear in many parts of the Japanese table.
🍫 Why Adzuki Beans Work for Chocolate
Adzuki beans might not seem like a natural choice for chocolate desserts, but they work surprisingly well. Their subtle bitterness and earthy depth, combined with cocoa powder, create a flavor remarkably close to real chocolate.
My vegan chocolate truffles are a perfect example — blended with prunes and coconut oil, they roll into melt-in-your-mouth truffles. The same base also makes my no-bake salted chocolate rosemary cookies, with a soft, truffle-like texture.
Keep a batch of cooked adzuki beans in the fridge, and you're always just minutes away from a chocolate-flavored vegan treat.
🫘 Ingredients
- Cooked adzuki beans (unsweetened): The base of this frosting. For this recipe, you want them slightly softer and more moist than you would for my vegan truffles — they blend more smoothly that way. See how to cook adzuki beans from scratch. You can also use store-bought sweetened adzuki beans; if so, skip the maple syrup and reduce the prunes to adjust sweetness.
- Maple syrup: Adds sweetness and helps mask the beany aroma.
- Cocoa powder: Use pure, unsweetened cocoa powder — no added sugar.
- Prunes: Add natural sweetness and depth of flavor.
- Coconut oil (optional): Makes the frosting richer and more chocolatey. Leave it out for a lighter, less rich result.
📖 Instructions
- Combine the ingredients:
- Add all ingredients except the coconut oil to a bowl or food processor.
🌿 Remove any pits from the prunes before adding.
- Blend until smooth:
- Use a hand blender or food processor and blend until completely smooth. Add the coconut oil if using, and blend once more to combine.
- Use immediately for piping or spreading, or refrigerate to firm it up — chilled, it’s easy to roll into truffle shapes and enjoy as vegan chocolate truffles.
📘 Tip: How to Get a Smoother Texture
If your blender or food processor leaves the frosting a little grainy, press it through a fine-mesh sieve.
It takes a bit of extra effort, but the result is noticeably silkier — especially worth doing if you're using it for piping or cake decoration.
🫙 Storage
This frosting keeps in the fridge for 2 to 3 days.
I usually make a small batch and finish it within a couple of days — just to keep myself from eating too much.
📚 FAQ
Add a little plant-based milk or water, a small amount at a time, and blend again until you reach the consistency you want. If it becomes too loose, refrigerate it for a while — the adzuki beans will absorb the excess moisture and firm it back up slightly.
If you feel like whispering a thought, asking a question, or simply saying hello — the comment section is always open 📮
📕 More Adzuki Bean Recipes
If you enjoyed this recipe, here are more ways to use cooked adzuki beans:
🍡 Traditional Japanese Sweets
Gently sweet vegan Japanese dessert recipes：
📖 Recipe Card
Vegan Chocolate Frosting with Adzuki Beans
Equipment
- Bowl
- Spoon
- food processor or hand blender
- fine-mesh strainer (optional)
- rubber spatula
Ingredients
- 70 g cooked adzuki beans (unsweetened)
- 30 g prunes (pits removed)
- 1 1tsp cocoa powder (adjust to taste)
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
Optional
- 10 g coconut oil (adjust to taste)
Instructions
- Combine the ingredients：Add all ingredients except the coconut oil to a bowl or food processor.70 g cooked adzuki beans30 g prunes1 1tsp cocoa powder1 teaspoon maple syrup
- Blend until smooth：Blend until completely smooth using a food processor or hand blender. Add the coconut oil if using, and blend again to combine.10 g coconut oil
If this recipe made its way into your kitchen, and you'd like to share that moment, feel free to tag @veginveganvegun or use #vegin_vegan_vegun.
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