Rice-lentils and baked spicy azuki lunch

Another nutritious and delicious plant-based lunch, doubly boosted in plant proteins with two types of pulses : beans and lentils. And a dynamic salad.
That’s ready very quickly if you plan a little. As faithful readers know, I cook beans in big batches and freeze in small portions, in muffin molds. Then you have to think about soaking the rice and lentils the night before (you can do without in case you forgot, but that’s better to do it right most of the time).

Azuki beans (boiled, I had them frozen), with gochujang and kimchi, two Korean products. I mixed, covered with bread crumbs.

Baked and sprinkled a little fragrant sesame oil and chili flakes on top.

Brown rice and lentils, soaked overnight and cooked in the rice-cooker together.

I stir-fried an onion, a little garlic, ginger slices, added the rice, turmeric, a little garam masala spice mix.

Kabocha salad made in last post.

Pumpkin curry with wined chestnuts, cilantro falafels

A deliciously flavored soup curry, with kabocha, wine flavored kuri chestnuts and hanamame giant beans. And a side of cilantro falafels. Some people are genetically designed to hate cilantro/coriander and it takes a really bad taste in their mouth. That’s really sad. I have to luck to appreciate this herb and I never have enough of it.

Soaked chick peas, mixed with onion, coriander (root, stalk, leaves), chili flakes, Sichuan pepper, salt.

Served with a dip of harissa… well it’s mixed with tomato sauce. Cucumbers, cilantro (the leaves) and shikwasa citrus salad.

Mmm… a dream if you love both falafels and coriander.

Kabocha pumpkin curry :
A cut of steamed kabocha, steamed with skin. Pasted with 1/2 block of tofu, 1 tbs of Japanese curry spice mix, 2 tbs of sakekasu sake lees, salt, water. I simmered the mix till it became thick. Garnished with hanamame beans and wined chestnuts :

White wine chestnuts :
That’s ideal if you have chestnut that start to dry a little.
Soak them 2 hours, then you can easy cut out the hard shell.
In fresh water, soak overnight, you can then take away the inner skin. Most of it. A large part of it. Actually, you want to leave a small amount for flavor. Break them in 2 or 3 parts.
Then I’ve drained the chestnuts, put in rice cooker, added a glass of white wine, a little sugar, a pinch of salt, 1/2 glass of water (to cover). Switched on. That stopped when the liquid had evaporated. You can do it in a pan or a crock-pot, simply simmer very gently.
They are good to add to sauces and dishes, just a few to pinpoint. You will discover the refined taste.

A nice meal, rich in legumes and fragrances.

Hokkaido red peas

赤えんどう豆 aka endo mame. Red peas, from Hokkaido.
I’ve found these in a depachika. It’s the under-ground flour of a department store where there are many specialty shops of food, ready to eat, fresh and ingredients. I had never used these peas.

After soaking a few hours.

And boiling 45 minutes. I could then use them for 3 dishes.

Japanese style : reheated on low heat, 15 minutes, with enough broth to cover, a piece of kombu seaweed, soy sauce and kurozato black sugar. Let cool. They can be kept about a week in the fridge and served as side dish for Japanese meals.

Aka endo mame okayu (more here)

Indian-Japanese fusion style : stir-fried with onion, garlic, ginger and chana dal massala powder. Plus a few shishito peppers.

Served on reheated shirataki noodles.

Bunny panisses

Panisses are chick pea based appetizers and street stall snacks from the South of France. They exist in different shapes but I guess the bunny style is rare. My recipe is also alternative. Normally you need chick pea flour that I didn’t have. So I found another way.

Soak a cup of dry chick peas. Put them in the blender with 2 tbs of olive oil. Add enough water to get a creamy sauce. Simmer on /medium low heat, stirring till you get a cooked thick paste. That takes 15 to 20 minutes. Add salt, and flavoring if you want. It has to be well dried.

Spread on cooking paper. Let cool. Put one hour or more in the fridge.

Cut and fry or stir-fry in olive oil.

Serve hot, with salt or a sauce of your choice.

Harissa for instance.

I joined white cucumbers and basil leaves. These are fried garlic chips. I fried them as I was testing my oil heat.

I also fried the cut out bits. I flavored them with that toppings.

Both were yummy.

Chickpeas three ways for a casual Summer lunch

Transforming a bowl of freshly boiled chick peas into 3 dishes.

Falafels. It’s better to make them from raw chick peas, but I’ve mashed boiled ones with a little potato starch for binding, added randomly spices, mint, lemon balm, and the brown thing is the ground of sobacha.

Pan-fried.

Chickpeas in a tomato tabouleh with… what was in the fridge, sweet corn, ninniku no me (garlic stalks), bell pepper, green soy beans, mint too. And harissa.