Please pass the peas

Tahini-Roasted Broccoli

February 19, 2016 Leave a Comment

Tahini-Roasted Broccoli from https://test.pleasepassthepeas.com

There are certain foods that I almost never cook, not because I don’t like them but because I can’t be bothered to deal with them.

These include:

Artichokes — happy to steam them whole and pluck off the leaves, but trimming them is too much trouble,

Fava beans — a skimpy yield and a pain to peel (although maybe there’s no need), and

Just about anything deep fried — becasue I don’t want to deal with all that oil.

I also have a decidedly love-hate relationship with tahini. It’s yummy stuff, good in sweet and savory recipes alike, but it’s also kind of a pain, what with all the separating and stirring.

This roasted broccoli makes great use of tahini, but it’s a recipe I kept putting off, primarily for the somewhat embarrassing reason that I didn’t feel like arm wrestling with my jar of sesame paste.

I like tahini, but I don’t like working with it. I’ve never really figured out a good way to emulsify everything, without bending one of my spoons in the process.

If anyone has any tips, I’ll gladly take them. I read somewhere that an immersion blender helps, but mine won’t fit in my tahini jar and scraping out the entire contents of the jar so that I could blend it together for the sake of two measly two tablespoons seemed like a lot of unnecessary effort.

In the end, I stirred the tahini as best I could but still had a few goopy lumps here and there. Smoother tahini would have been nice, but the broccoli was a win either way: nutty and lemony with crisp, almost caramelized, edges.

The entire recipe is ready in minutes (minus the time spent stirring tahini) and the leftovers were almost as good the next day.

It was enough to make me want to dip back into that tahini jar for another batch — and that’s saying something.

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Tahini-Roasted Broccoli

Yield: serves 2-4, as a side

Adapted from Food52.

A nutty, lemony spin on roasted broccoli, this recipe takes just minutes to prepare (assuming your tahini is already well-stirred).

The original recipe calls for kosher salt, which I had and used, but table salt will work too. If you use table salt, I'd recommend starting with about half the amount and adding a little more if needed.

The recipe also suggested sprinkling extra lemon juice over the finished dish. I love lemon but thought the broccoli had plenty of lemony flavor without an extra spritz of juice, so you might want to try a piece first.

  • 2 tablespoons tahini, well stirred
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus more to serve
  • 2 large cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • several grinds black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 cups broccoli (about one large head), cut into bite-sized florets

Preheat oven to 450° F.

Place all of the ingredients except for the broccoli in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add broccoli and toss well to coat. Pour everything onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spread the broccoli out into a single layer and bake for 10 minutes. Serve hot, squeezing a little extra lemon juice on top, if desired.

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Filed Under: Sides, Vegan, Vegetarian, Winter Tagged With: broccoli, lemon, tahini

Diana Henry’s Uzbeki Carrots

November 18, 2015 Leave a Comment

Diana Henry's Uzbeki Carrots from https://test.pleasepassthepeas.com

I like carrots just fine.

They are readily available, inexpensive and versatile, well-suited to everything from roasting, to pickling, to scooping up hummus.

But they are not, generally speaking, all that interesting.

So when I saw Heidi Swanson describe this Uzbeki carrot recipe as exactly that on her website, 101 Cookbooks, I immediately began to pay attention.

The recipe originally comes from Diana Henry’s book, “A Change of Appetite,” and just like Heidi said, it is among the most interesting things I’ve ever seen anyone do with carrots. Somehow, the carrots, tomatoes, spices, herbs, dried fruit and honey all come together, turning one of the most mundane root vegetables into something truly intriguing.

I don’t really know anything about Uzbeki cuisine or even what about it is about this recipe that earns it the moniker, but if it is all as complex and nuanced as these carrots then I definitely want to learn more…. 

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Filed Under: Fall, Sides, Vegetarian, Winter Tagged With: carrots

Summer Vacation Potato Salad

August 6, 2015 Leave a Comment

vacation potato salad from https://test.pleasepassthepeas.com

I know I’m a little late to the party, but Please Pass the Peas finally joined Instragram (@pleasepeas, in case you want to follow along).

Lately, my feed has been nothing but pictures of other people’s vacations: Hawaii, Maine, Michigan. Sun everywhere.

Not here though. Here the rain is pouring down, the lights are flickering and I’m racing to get this post up before the internet goes out.

Fortunately, we had much better weather for our own vacation a few weeks ago. We stayed in a beach condo owned by the parents of some friends and did nothing but swim, read and play board games for days…. 

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Filed Under: Salad, Sides, Summer, Uncategorized, Vegetarian Tagged With: potato salad, potatoes

Butter beans with melted leeks

June 3, 2015 Leave a Comment

Butter beans with melted leeks from https://test.pleasepassthepeas.com

On a summer evening some years ago, two of the South’s most celebrated writers, William Faulkner and Katherine Anne Porter, were dining together at a plush restaurant in Paris. Everything had been laid out to perfection; a splendid meal had been consumed, a bottle of fine Burgundy emptied, and thimble-sized glasses of an expensive liqueur drained. The maître d’ and an entourage of waiters hovered close by, ready to satisfy any final whim.

“Back home the butter beans are in,’ said Faulkner, peering into the distance, ‘the speckled ones.”

Miss Porter fiddled with her glass and stared into space. “Blackberries,” she said wistfully.

-Eugene Walter, American Cooking, Southern Style (1971)

If that doesn’t make you crave butter beans, nothing I can say will.

For those of you who don’t need any convincing, I have a confession to make: I have been holding out on you, eating the most delicious butter beans imaginable for a few months now without sharing the recipe.

In my defense, I did have my reasons…. 

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Filed Under: Sides, Summer, Vegetarian Tagged With: butter beans, leeks

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I'm Lindsay, a home cook based in Wilmington, NC. Please Pass the Peas is where I share recipes and stories about the food I feed my family. More about me...

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