We hadn’t eaten black-eyed peas for a while, so the peas and rice did taste extra delicious. Anni commented how the taste of the black-eyed peas combine the sweetness of chickpeas and the flouryness of regular beans. I think that’s an apt description!

Here’s what I used:

• 2,5 dl dried black-eyed peas
• a piece of kombu
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• about 2 teaspoons of cumin
• about 1,5 teaspoons of coriander
• 2 chipotles in adobo sauce, finely chopped
• 2 dl tomato sauce, passata style
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

About two hours before I started to cook, I quick soaked the peas: I rinsed them, put them in a bowl filled with boiling water, and covered the bowl. (Obviously, they could’ve been soaked overnight too, but since I forgot to do it, I had to quick soak them.) Then, two hours later, I began with boiling the black-eyed peas. I threw soaking water away, put the peas in a kettle over low heat, added the kombu and plenty of boiling water.

While the peas were simmering, I prepared the sauce. First, I put a frying pan over medium high heat, added the onion, and fried it until quite brownish. I kept stirring the onion a lot so that it wouldn’t burn. Then I added the garlic, cumin, coriander and the chipotle, and fried them about half a minute, stirring continuously. I poured the tomato sauce in the pan, stirred, lowered the heat, and waited until the black-eyed peas were done. I drained the peas, removed the kombu, and added the peas into the frying pan. I mixed the sauce and the beans, added the salt, and checked the taste.

We enjoyed this dish with a side of lightly steamed broccoli and carrots, which were a nice sweet side with the flavorful stew. Before settling with my version I was happy to find Nupur’s lovely and thorough blog post about khichdi, and closely read through quite a few kitchari recipes. Heikki loved this dish and commented that kids would probably enjoy it as well – before he even knew that it’s often the first solid food introduced to children in India!

This is what I used (serves 3-4):

• 2 dl brown basmati rice, soaked for 2 hours (unsoaked cooks longer)
• 1 and 1/2 dl green  mung beans, soaked overnight
• 1 or 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, ground
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons each: ground coriander and cumin
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• pinch of asafoetida
• 6-8 dl water, and maybe more as needed
• sea salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons of vegan margarine
• 1 tablespoon of tamarind paste or lemon juice

I first heated the oil and fried the mustard seeds until they started to pop. Then I added the chopped ginger and fried it for a few seconds, followed with fennel, coriander, cumin and asafoetida, which I fried just until fragrant, being careful not to burn. Now, I added the rice and the beans along with about 6 dl of hot water and the turmeric, brought to boil, then lowered the heat and let the stew simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes. I added a little bit of water as needed, but not too much – I didn’t want this to be a soupy stew.

When the rice was soft, I removed the pot from heat, and added in the margarine, tamarind paste, and salt to taste. I stirred the stew briskly with a ladle for a few minutes to mash some of the beans and make it a bit creamier, and then it was ready to be served.

The secret of this soup is how we used tahini as a thickener, which produced an almost coconut-milk-like creaminess. It really worked well in this recipe, and we’ll be sure to try tahini in other soups in the future.

This is what we used:

• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 teaspoons cumin (jeera)
• 2 teaspoons coriander
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
• about 6 dl of vegetable stock
• 5 medium potatoes, diced
• 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 2 teaspoons tahini
• 1 – 2 tablespoons lime juice
• salt to taste
• sugar to taste
• pepper to taste
• chopped fresh parsley to garnish

I began by prepping the potatoes, onion and garlic. Since we were hungry, I diced the potatoes into smallish cubes to reduce cooking time.

I heated the oil in a thick-bottomed pot and added the cumin, coriander, turmeric and paprika. I stirred with a spatula, until the fragrances were released. Then I added the onion and garlic, and sweated them for a few minutes. Next I put the potato cubes in the pot, and poured in the stock, just enough to cover the potatoes. I brought the soup to boil, covered the pot, and cooked until the potatoes were soft.

When the potatoes were done I added the chickpeas in the soup. Then I took about 1 dl of the liquid from the soup in a cup, mixed in the tahini with a spoon until no lumps remained, and poured it back into the soup. Then we added the salt, sugar, pepper and lime juice, and checked the taste until it was to our liking. Before serving, we sprinkled our soup with some chopped parsley.

We thought that the burgers turned out really well. The Indian-style spices, the earthy flavor of the cow peas and the delicate taste of the hemp seeds made a delectable combination. The burgers were served with a side of potato wedges, garlic yogurt sauce and some lettuce.

There are many reasons to use hemp seeds. First of all, they are a complete protein source, just like soy bean and quinoa. Also, unlike soy beans, hemp can be cultivated in Finland too. After making this dish, I realized there’s a third reason as well: Its mild, easily combinable taste makes it a great ingredient in plant-based cuisine.

This is what I used:

• 500 g boiled or canned cowpeas, mashed (about 1 cup or 2,5 dl of dried cowpeas)
• 1 dl ground hemp seeds
• 3 tablespoons gluten flour
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 2 teaspoons of coriander
• 1 fresh chili, minced (or to taste)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• olive oil for brushing

First I set the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. I heated the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, and fried the onion until translucent. Then I lowered the heat, added the garlic, turmeric, cumin, and coriander, and stirred them into an oily paste. I continued to fry and stir for maybe a minute more, and removed the paste from the heat.

Next I simply combined all the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, added the paste from the frying pan, and kneaded the mix with my hand for a minute or two, until a delicate dough was formed. Now I spread some baking parchment on a baking sheet, and rolled eight balls from the dough, which I proceeded to tap between my palms into burgers.

I placed the burgers on the baking parchment, and brushed them with olive oil on both sides. I baked them in the oven for 30 minutes, 15 minutes on both sides. Before flipping them over, I brushed them with olive oil again. Together with the burgers I baked some potato wedges on a separate baking sheet, the burgers on the upper rack, and the potatoes on the lower rack.

We were out of olive oil when I first engineered this recipe, so it ended up lower in fat than the hummus we normally make. Also, the red bell pepper we used came from a glass jar, and while home-roasted peppers are more delicious, it was an easy and economical option – bell peppers are ridiculously expensive this time of year, although they are getting a little cheaper as the spring progresses. I am not a huge fan of tahini and add only a little bit, since the sunflower seeds contibute a nice nutty flavor without the bitter edge of the sesame paste.

Here’s what we used this time:

• 4 dl cooked chick peas
• 1 roasted red bell pepper (from a jar)
• 1 dl lightly toasted sunflower seeds
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 dl water
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons tahini
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin (or jeera, juustokumina in Finnish)
• 1 teaspoon sugar

I just mixed everything up with our immersion blender. It takes a while until the sunflower seeds get all crushed, probably about 5 minutes.

I always adjust the taste of my hummus by adding a little lemon juice, salt, more chick peas, or even water if the taste isn’t quite balanced in the end. Jarred roasted bell peppers are more acidic than home-roasted, since they’re usually preserved in vinegar, and this affects the flavor balance as well.

We’ve tried a couple of variations of this soup. This version is basically a crossbreed between a recipe that was in the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat about three years ago, and various chick pea soup recipes from the excellent Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & Africa by Habeeb Salloum. This is what we used:

• 5 dl dried chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 2 small leeks, chopped to matchsticks
• 3 teaspoons vegetable stock powder
• 2 potatoes, boiled and cubed
• 1 liter water
• 5 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin (jeera)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• some freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt or according to taste
• 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice

About one hour before cooking, we put the chickpeas in a bowl, and filled it with boiling water. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you should soak the chick peas overnight. We put the cooker over medium-high heat and heated the olive oil. We then fried the chopped leek and sliced garlic for a couple of minutes, stirring frequenty so that the garlic wouldn’t burn. Next, we poured in the water and the chickpeas and added the vegetable stock powder, covered the cooker, and cooked on high pressure for 2o minutes. Then we lowered the pressure, added the cubed potatoes, cilantro, cumin and paprika, and cooked on low pressure for 10 minutes more. If you’re not using a pressure cooker, you’d probably need to cook the chick peas about for an hour, and then add the spices and potatoes, and simmer maybe 15 minutes more.

Now, we took the cooker off the heat, lowered the pressure, and used our immersion blender to purée the soup. Then we added the salt, lemon juice and black pepper. I guess this goes without saying, but at this point sample the taste, adding salt, pepper or lemon juice as you see (or taste) fit.

We served the soup sprinkled with chili and cumin and topped off with a liberal splash of olive oil. These are essential! Also have a few extra slices of lemon handy, which can be squeezed on top of the serving according to taste.

Ground cumin (also known as jeera, geerah, kamoon), crushed red chili, and red paprika powder, with some frozen cilantro on the background.

Chickpea Croquettes:

• 1 can (400 g) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1,2 dl frozen peas
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1,5 dl wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons egg replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons water (or other replacer for 2 eggs)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley (or cilantro, which was out of stock in the shops close by)
• canola oil for frying

First, we mixed wheat flour with baking soda. Then we just placed all the ingredients in a bowl and processed with a hand held mixer until the batter was completely smooth.

Now, Heikki filled a thick wok pan with canola oil, about 4 cm thick layer of it. Then, he spooned the dough by heaping spoonfuls into the oil, and let them fry until golden brown.

Here, croquettes are at different stages of goldness. They need to be turned over once to fry the other side as well. Habeeb Salloum advices that if the croquettes break up in the oil, more flour should be added, but Heikki had no such problems.

After frying, we drained the croquettes on paper towels, and then served with bulgur pilaf, ginger yogurt sauce and tomato relish. This batch made about 22 croquettes.

Bulgur Pilaf:

In his introduction to this recipe, Habeeb Salloum writes that “[burghul] can be employed in every course and in every meal of the day”. This is the way it is cooked in Lebanon and Syria.

This amount is enough for four, but we only cooked a 3/4 portion, and still had enough leftovers for the lunch next day.

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2,4 dl whole wheat bulgur (or burghul)
• 5 dl water
• salt and pepper to taste

Heikki heated oil in a frying pan and fried the bulgur over medium heat for 3 minutes. then, he stirred in water, salt, and freshly ground black pepper, brought everything to a boil, and covered with a lid. Bulgur was cooked for 25 minutes, and then allowed to steam, covered, until the croquettes were done.