Fava Bean Hummus

Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: June 8, 2023

A day in the life of my pet scoby: It floats. It burps bubbles. It makes faces at me from behind the glass of the half-gallon jar I keep it in. It’s fascinating. And I could sit there all day, gazing into its moldy-looking depths.

Meanwhile, 2 pounds of fava beans need to be shelled, 4 ears of corn await shucking, 10 perfectly-formed squash blossoms lie in limbo, and 5 pounds of peaches sitting on the counter are being eyed by a small army of fruit flies.

In other words, I wanted to tell you about my first batch of homemade kombucha today, but the scoby got attacked by fruit flies and, ugh, I won’t go into the details. Let’s just say, baby fruit flies, aka MAGGOTS!!!!!!!!!

Enough. You’ll find me crying in the corner.

(Not really. But still…)

(And this hummus is really good.)

(Sorry for the short post. I’ve got deadlines, yo!)

FAVA BEAN HUMMUS

Adapted from Vegetable Literacy

Makes 1 cup
About 2 cups shelled fava beans
1/2 cup olive oil
3 to 4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Bring a pot of water to boil and immerse the beans for a minute. Drain the pot and refresh the beans in cold water. Remove their skins (they should come off easily).

In a food processor (or with an immersion blender), combine the fava beans, olive oil, garlic, cumin, and salt. Puree until smooth. Add the lemon juice and puree until combined.

Scrape out the hummus and serve it in a bowl, drizzled with a little extra olive oil and some cumin seeds if you’d like.

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Pappardelle With Wild Mushrooms

Mains

Christiana George

Updated Date:
June 8, 2023

With Thanksgiving over, I’ve switched to Winter Mode.

Winter Mode consists of uplifting meals whose main ingredients might include any or all of the following: pasta and/or noodles, cheese, butter, cream, and excessive liquid. Bacon makes a recurring appearance. As does chocolate. My preferred mode of cooking becomes baking. Or boiling. Boiling noodles, that is.

Of course, because our radiator goes on overdrive each and every night, we’re met with a rather bewildering dinnertime situation. To set the scene: we’re minimally dressed. No socks, no sweaters. We’re wearing t-shirts, shorts even. The window’s open—god, can we get some snow in here or something? (Just kidding, but I can’t wait!) While we eat, pools of sweat build up on our foreheads, right by our hairlines. (Why do I bother washing my hair?) My armpits start feeling damp, I’m blowing like crazy on each bite to cool it down.

It’s contradictory-feeling, the heat, and confuses my body greatly. I’m craving fats and proteins, but responding to the stuff adversely once I get it.

But it’s alright. There’s ice cream in the freezer, the perfect after-dinner aid. Armed with a heaping bowl each, we can dangle our feet on our fire escape and contemplate the following day.

To counter the richness, there are mushrooms.

In my estimation, mushrooms are the perfect stand-in for meat. They’re portly and satisfying, with their own irresistible flavors to boot. Plus, they’re not bad on the eyes. (Can tofu boast such a quality? I think not.)

I like shiitake mushrooms the best, but I like mixing them even more. This wild mushroom pasta serves them up simply, with a liberal sprinkling of parmesan cheese and parsley. I think the trick is to not overdo it on the pappardelle, which has the tendency to dry out the dish. While the original recipe called for an approximate one-to-one ratio of pasta and mushrooms, I would halve the heavy (albeit delicious) pappardelle and even increase the amount of mushrooms just a tad.

That way, you’ll really taste the garlicky mushrooms but get to savor the luscious pappardelle as well.

My body can cope with that.

PAPPARDELLE WITH WILD MUSHROOMS

Adapted from The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

Serves 2

Ingredients:

12 oz. mixed mushrooms
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Dried red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper to taste
juice of 1/2 lemon
up to 8 oz. pappardelle
1/2 stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter
a small handful of grated Parmesan cheese
a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Directions:

Brush off dirt from the mushrooms and slice thinly. In a very hot frying pan, add the olive oil, then the mushrooms. Let them fry fast, tossing once or twice, then add the garlic and red pepper flakes with a pinch of salt (season lightly, Jamie instructs, as a little really brings out the flavor). Continue to fry fast for 4 to 5 minutes, tossing regularly. Then turn the heat off and squeeze in the lemon juice. Toss and season to taste.

Meanwhile cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. Add to the mushrooms, with the parmesan, parsley and butter. Toss gently, coating the pasta with the mushrooms and their flavor. Serve, scraping out all of the last bits of mushroom from the pan, and sprinkle with a little extra parsley and Parmesan.