chickpeas and green beans

I wanted to share my dinner tonight. It looks very ordinary, but it's really very good. It feels good, it was just right.



Ingredients:
chickpeas
garlic
onion
green beans
mushrooms
tempeh
celery
carrot
zucchini
red capsicum
chilli
cherry tomatoes
parsley
rind and juice of one lemon
olive oil
apple cider vinegar
salt
pepper
tumeric
cumin seeds
millet
hot water

1. Cook chickpeas with garlic and tumeric. Boil for about an hour or two.
2. Make a dressing for the vegies. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, 1 crushed garlic clove, salt, pepper and a bit of apple cider vinegar together. Let it sit for a while to let the garlic flavour soak into the oil.
3. Blanche some green beans in boiling water for two minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water.
4. Chop up onions, mushrooms, celery, tempeh, carrot, zucchini, capsicum and chilli.
5. Fry onions in oil for a minute or two, add mushrooms and tempeh and fry until mushrooms are soft. Add celery and carrots and cook for about 5 minutes. Add a bit of water from chickpeas if necessary. Add the zucchini and capsicum, stir for a couple of minutes then turn off the heat.
6. I should have started the millet earlier but this is a good opportunity to use any leftover water from cooking the chickpeas to cook the millet in. Heat some cumin seeds in a dry saucepan until aromatic, then add 1 cup dry millet and stir until it smells warm and nutty. Add 2 cups of hot liquid, let boil for a minute, then put the lid on and turn down the heat. Simmer gently for 20 minutes.
7. Add the green beans to the vegies. Chop up some cherry tomatoes and add to the vegies. Chop up lots of parsley and add to the vegies. Grate the rind of a lemon and add to the vegies.
8. Stir up the dressing again and pour over the vegies, mix it through. Combine the millet and vegies and stir (more vegies than millet).

This is a good meal to eat lukewarm, perhaps at body temperature.

pumpkin salad

This recipe comes from the lovely Dioni. She was in town for a few months last year, and we had some good times reconnecting. I love it when people make certain, wonderful meals for you that you start making yourself, then always associate with that person. It's like you bring a part of them to the table every time you make that meal again. All those things with smells, eating, memories, it can be a deeply intimate and rich experience over the duration of a meal.
I have a few of those meals:
Sue's avocado soup
Chloe's eggplant bake and turtle potatoes
Charlie's miso soup
Jessie's Chinese soup with eggplant and bamboo
Lill's dumplings
Jess's coconut curry
Mark's roast vegetable pasta stir-through
Denise's pear and miso pizza
Beth's roast Jerusalem artichokes
The list goes on, but I'd have to think about it for a while.
Anyway, here's how to make this very yummy salad:

Ingredients:
pumpkin, cut into smallish chunks
adzuki beans
red quinoa
rind and juice of a lemon
lots of fresh parsley, sage and thyme
olive oil
salt

1. Soak and cook adzuki beans for 40min - 1hr. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2. Roast pumpkin in oven with some oil and a bit of salt. Take out when done and let cool.
3. Cook quinoa on the stove, 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water. Bring to boil, then cover and simmer on a low heat for 10 min. Take off the heat and keep covered for another 5-10min.
4. Combine those ingredients in a bowl with olive oil, chopped herbs, and juice and rind of a lemon. Add salt to taste. It's amazing.