Red Kidney Bean Hummus

Recently, in a attempt to eat healthier but also to economise, I unearthed my copies of vegetarian cook books from the 1980’s, a time when all may have been flash fast food and ready meals for the rest of the nation, but for vegetarians it was still very much D.I.Y.

I have a distinct feeling that I was a lot more healthy and, to a point, have eaten more healthily, the less money I’ve had available.  Only to a point, mind.  The months where I was living mainly off boiled barley and lentil soup mix (plain) and, a year or so before that, from flatmates’ donated leftovers, I don’t think I was getting much of a good balance food-wise.  But how different things are here and now where the cheap, processed food is everywhere.

My favourite veggie cook book ever has to be ‘The Vegetarian Cook Book 2’ by David Eno.  So old that there isn’t even an image of it on the Amazon listing (but you can pick up a used copy for 1p) and it’s DIY just about everything heaven for veggies.  Maybe I can learn something from the time of relative austerity, of health food shops with barrels of lentils and oats rather than shelves of food supplements and of eating in most nights because it’s only Pizza Hut that has any veggie options.

Buy the book (c’mon, I just said a used copy is 1p) and turn to page 31 and there’s a recipe for Hummus.   I’ve made it – it’s nice, it looks and tastes like hummus.  The variation below is something I thought I’d invented, until I looked online and discovered other people have had the same idea.

Kidney Bean Hummus 20140221_002529

  • 200g red kidney beans, cooked or from a can or carton
  • Little shake of salt
  • 2 small cloves of garlic or 1 large clove, chopped or crushed
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp tahini
  • Cayenne pepper to taste
  1. Blend

(that’s definitely the shortest set of recipe instructions I’ve ever written)

Koftas

Some years ago, when I worked in Hackney, there was a family-run health food shop near to the office and I was a fairly frequent visitor. Alongside Decaffs with soya milk (don’t do it – it curdles), fruit and veg and branded health foods, the shop sold lentil koftas as made by one of them and lovingly presented with a slice of lemon. I found recipes for them online and tried making my own only to discover that online recipes tell you how to make a million koftas when you actually want 6 or 7 max and they all require you to use bulghur wheat which I can’t find in the shop. The recipe below uses quinoa, which is everywhere and makes enough koftas for a packed lunch plus a few extra to wait in the fridge for you and greet you when you get home.

koftas

It’s quinoa, not worms – it just looks like that, OK?

  • 50g lentils
  • 50g quinoa
  • small onion
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic
  • Olive oil for frying
  • tomato puree
  • fresh herbs (I used dill but mint and coriander are good too)
  • Pinch of cumin
  • Lemon juice
  1. Cook the lentils and the quinoa, drain and then mix together in a bowl
  2. Add lightly fried onion and garlic, tomato puree, herbs, cumin and lemon juice and stir in well
  3. Form into sausage shapes and leave in the fridge – they should become solid enough for you to pick up to eat (with luck!)
  4. Serve with lettuce and a squeeze of lemon

Olive Cake

I knew some Turkish twins called Mine (pronounced Mina) and Nese (pronounced Nesha) when I was at college. They had long, wavy hair, were very pretty and gave bear hugs. And they often offered their friends some of their mum’s olive cake, which was like an extra bonus to being friends with them, except I got addicted and needed more than was supplied. I asked for the recipe. “We’ll ask our mum” they said. But despite reminders, they never remembered.

I had their family home phone number so I gave their mum a call and introduced myself as a friend of her daughters and a fan of her cooking. She seemed chuffed and was happy to dictate the recipe down the phone. Years on, and I still can’t make it as good as she did. Perhaps she gave me the amended and slightly inferior recipe, intended for people who aren’t family.

Olive cake, as dictated, my additions in italics
Put some flour in a bowl, one of those small bags of flour you can get is the right amount i.e. 500g, and chop one medium onion into it.
Sprinkle on one sachet of easy-bake yeast powder – ‘Allinsons’ is one brand name and supermarkets often have their own brand.
Add one teaspoon each of salt, sugar and dried mint – I use a bit more than that and one cup of chopped black olives.
Mix to a dough with half a cup of olive oil and a cup of warm water – I use half a cup of boiling water and keep adding cold water till it feels a slightly warmer than lukewarm temperature.
Leave in a warm place to rise till it almost doubles. Oven on lowest temperature with door open or in airing cupboard
Bake in a warm oven (she didn’t specify how warm so I put it on 200 degrees C, which is Gas Mark 6) till light brown all over.
To check if done, put a knife in and it should come out clean.
When you take out of oven, cover with a clean dishcloth and let the steam rise through it. Why?!! I occasionally do this if I have a clean dishcloth handy, but the lack of one has never seemed to make a difference.
Put kettle on. Make tea. Put feet up. Drink tea and eat cake.
Which is where I disagree; it’s better eaten the next day or even the day after because it tastes nicer then.