Broad bean 'hummus'

I had an exciting trip to Super 88 (Asian supermarket in Allston) last weekend, and scored all sorts of things: from umeboshi plums and shiso seasoning to green tea noodles, via perfect avocados and frozen broad beans. I'd bought frozen broad beans from there before and been disappointed - they were big and tough and ugly. These ones were in a transparent packet, so I could see before I even picked them up that they were none of those things - they were rather dinky, bright green, and had even had their little jackets removed. I stashed them in the freezer and remembered about them a week later, when I came in from aerials hungry and ready for something fresh and tasty. I decided to make the broad beans into a bright green, hummus-like paste.

1 cup frozen broad beans, defrosted by soaking in boiling water for about 5 min
1/2 a small clove garlic, peeled
2 tbsp tahini
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint leaves
salt+pepper

Put all the ingredients in a blender cup and blend until smooth.


I really, really liked this - fun colour, and the broad bean taste is so refreshing and full of summer promise (especially paired with the mint).

Amazing miso: chickpea-miso dip

I bought the most amazing miso yesterday. It is chickpea miso, from a company called South River Miso in Western Mass. It is intense, sweet, salty, umami, full of beautiful chunks of chickpea and rice, and one year old. Seriously: I liked miso before, but this stuff has blown my mind. I liked it so much I looked up their website. Now I am coveting their other kinds of miso - their dandelion and leek sounds incredible. I also found their wealth of recipe ideas, and tried a couple of simple / intriguing ones. This one is basically hummus, but with miso and without oil.

1 cup cooked chickpeas
4 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp chickpea miso
1 clove garlic
Juice of one lemon (used lime)

Drain chickpeas and reserve cooking liquid. Put all the ingredients in a blender cup and blend until smooth, adding cooking liquid as needed to reach desired consistency.


The miso taste really comes through, this stuff is smooth and creamy and delicious.

Tempeh; carrot+cumin hummus; pasta salad

I can't get to grips with tempeh.  To start with, it looks kind of off even when it's fresh...  I also haven't yet worked out a good way to cook it - the taste and texture often end up a bit odd.

So I saw this recipe and thought 'ah, steaming, maybe that's the secret'.  I tried it last night:

8 oz packet tempeh

2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup veggie broth
2 tablespoons white balsalmic vinegar (used 1 tablespoon regular balsamic)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (used lime juice instead)
1/4 cup fresh thyme, leaves whole, soft stems roughly chopped (used basil instead)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Slice tempeh into 2 squares. Slice the squares sandwich-like into two thin squares. Cut each square into triangles, to make 8 thin triangles.  Steam the pieces for 10 minutes.

Mix the remaining ingredients together in a big bowl. When tempeh is ready, add it to the bowl.  Marinate for 1 to 4 hours, flipping occasionally.

Grill or fry in a pan.  In pan, cook for 10-12 min, turning every so often.  Attached bits of herb are a good thing - they go pleasantly crisp.

Note - the marinade can be re-used:  I pressed some firm tofu while the tempeh was in the marinade, and bunged the tofu in and into the fridge once the tempeh was out.

Hmmmmm.  It's definitely a good way of cooking it.  But ultimately it tastes good because the weird tempeh taste is being masked a bit.  I like the texture of tempeh, I just don't 100% like the taste.  Tempeh is way better than seitan though, seitan is really not very good.  Think they both appeal more to people who miss meat more.


Carrot and cumin hummus

A variation on hummus, merging with carrot spread.

~ 1 cup chickpeas, defrosted
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
small piece garlic
3 smallish carrots
salt+pepper
lump (~50g) of tofu (extra firm silken, as that's what I had open)
juice of ~1/3 lime
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp honey (just to boost the carrots' sweetness)

Grind toasted cumin seeds in spice grinder.  Peel the carrots and steam for ~10 min.  Put all ingredients into blender cup and blend til smooth.  Add water to get desired texture; add seasoning and oil / juice to taste.  Considered adding coriander too - might be good another day - but decided to keep it simple for today.

This came out well - the carroty sweetness and earthy chickpeas balanced out, and the spicy cumin taste finished it off.  The tofu adds a kind of creaminess I think - it's an interesting addition as a texture enhancer.


Pasta salad

S and I have an ongoing disagreement about pasta - in short, he would happily eat it for every meal, I wouldn't (although it's OK once in a while).  This tends to resolve itself in him cooking pasta every time he cooks, and me never cooking it.  There was some leftover pasta (gemelli I think - kinda fancy twists) from one of his escapades, and I thought I would surprise him by making something pasta-based.  This is really so simple it doesn't need a recipe, but it did go down well, so here it is.

1 1/2 cups pre-cooked pasta
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 large 'leaves' raw fennel, chopped
1/4 of a purple pepper, chopped
1/2 an avocado, chopped
6 small radishes, sliced
2 small spring onions, finely sliced
small handful mixed leaves (rocket+lettuce), chopped

handful frozen sweetcorn, defrosted
2 tbsp pumpkin and sunflower seeds, toasted
1-2 tbsp fresh basil, torn into pieces
salt+pepper
olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dress

Prepare all ingredients, put in a bowl, with dressing and seasoning to taste, and toss.


Simple and colourful and tasty - nothing fancy but definitely pleasing.  A high proportion of veg for a pasta salad - prob about 50:50.  Lots of room for variation.

Steamed veg with tahini sauce / stock / curry / hummus

Friday evening for a quick dinner made steamed veg with tahini sauce - steamed some broccoli and leeks (mmm steamed leeks), then made a sauce like this:

4 tbsp tahini
juice of 1 lime
2cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
1 lemongrass stalk, soft parts finely chopped (optional)
1 spring onion, finely chopped (optional)
1 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp tamarind paste

Mix all of the above together until smooth-ish, then add water to desired consistency.  For a really quick / clean hands version mix tahini, tamarind, sweet chili, soy and a little rice vinegar.

Serve the sauce on the side with the steamed veg.  I did this once before with soft tofu chopped and mixed with the steamed veg, and toasted sesame seeds on top.  I really like this sauce, and it goes really well with the steamed veg.  And the whole thing is really quick to make.  A variation on this.


Sunday was time for a clear out of the fridge.  Found some tired veg in there, so made veg stock out of sprouting onions, kale stems, floppy celery, old fennel, slightly yellowing parsley, dried-out thyme and a few carrots.  Also soaked and cooked some chickpeas and then used them and the remaining kale stems to make chickpea potato kale curry, with purple potatoes this time, which looked really colourful and fancy.  Froze stock and remaining chickpeas.

Lastly, I used some of the chickpeas to make hummus:

1.5 cups cooked chickpeas
3 tbsp tahini
juice of 1/4 lemon
1.5 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
piece of garlic the size of a chickpea
liquid from chickpea cooking (enough for a good consistency)

Put all the ingredients into blender cup and whizz until smooth.  Add more cooking liquid until your favourite consistency is reached.

The ingredients listed above give a good, basic hummus.  I like adding in other bits and pieces to make it more interesting and more unique.  For example, using lime juice or tamarind instead of lemon juice; adding coriander or basil or parsley; adding pesto; adding pitted olives; holding back some whole chickpeas to sprinkle on top; adding ground spices such as cayenne, paprika, coriander seed, cumin; adding sundried tomatoes or caramelised onions...  One variation example is: carrot and cumin hummus.