A fine mess of chickpeas
Vegetarian cuisine both appealing and feasible
Proof that imaginative vegetarian cuisine has taken hold can be found in The First Mess Cookbook (Penguin, $35), a collection of more than 125 recipes.
Author Laura Wright grew up helping her family produce and sell food in the southern Ontario countryside. She honed her skills working in a restaurant, attended culinary school and shares family recipes on her blog The First Mess. (Its name was inspired by U.S. writer MFK Fisher’s description of the “first mess” of spring peas.) Wright gradually became vegan, and her book makes this regime seem appealing and feasible to manage.
Wright likes to serve this scramble with crepes studded with green onions. Black lava salt is a favourite, but sea salt works too, she says. If you want to cut cooking time, two cans (540 mL each) of chickpeas, rinsed and drained, may be substituted for the home-cooked ones in the recipe.
MISO AND TURMERIC CHICKPEA SCRAMBLE Serves: 4
3 cups (750 mL) cooked chickpeas
1 tsp (5 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
2 green onions, finely sliced
1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) ground turmeric
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup (60 mL) chickpea or all-purpose flour
3 tbsp (45 mL) vegetable stock or water
2 tsp (10 mL) mellow or light miso
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1. Using a fork, mash chickpeas in a bowl, keeping the texture chunky.
Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a sauté pan over medium heat and cook green onions and mashed chickpeas, stirring as they cook, until the onions are just beginning to become tender. Stir in turmeric and, when mixture is hot, add garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Sprinkle the flour over the chickpea mixture and stir it in. In a small bowl, whisk together the vegetable stock and miso, just until the large lumps of miso are broken up. Stir this mixture into the pan.
4. Season the scramble with salt and pepper. If mixture is dry, add a little more stock or water, heat until hot and serve at once.