Broccoli Rising and Beans and Other Gifts
I belong to Beans is How, the advocacy coalition promoting doubling bean consumption by 2028 — for your health and for the health of the planet. I’ve been pushing pulses for years, and I still think they’re the world’s most exciting food.
Beans may look small and unassuming, but they offer
affordability — they’re the cheapest source of protein out there
You know all this because I keep telling you. However, you may not know that beans play a pivotal role in a holiday classic, gateau des roie. The name is French — it means king cake — but its origins date back to ancient Rome, predating Christmas by a lot and certainly predating the joyfully gaudy king cakes of Mardi Gras. Compared to those, swathed in yellow, purple and green icing, a traditional gateau des roie can be rather staid-looking. It’s tan and flat. But like beans themselves, gateau des roie can be deceiving. Though plain in looks, what you have is crisp, flaky pastry outside, giving way to creamy almond frangipane inside. Once you taste it, gateau des roie invites abandon — but eat carefully. Buried somewhere amid that almondy essence is a fava bean.
The bean-in-the-cake tradition goes back to pagan times. Folks, attentive to the seasons and the rhythms of the Earth, noticed that beans were among the first plants to emerge after a bitter winter. Beans were — and are — a symbol of renewal and prosperity. If the bean is in your slice of gateau des roie, congratulations! You’re now king or queen for a day. Just try not to choke or crack a tooth on it.
Gateau des roie was originally enjoyed 12 days after Christmas, on Epiphany, or Three Kings Day — you know, after the partridge, the pear tree and all the drummers drumming. But it’s so good, it’s easy to see why it’s become part of the Christmas celebration.
Also easy — crafting a vegan gateau des roie. The secret’s in the bean, or actually, in the bean water, aka aquafaba — the liquid in a can of chickpeas. The stuff we discarded for years turns out to be magic. Aquafaba can perform just like eggs, binding and leavening baked goods and whipping up thick and billowy for mousses and meringues. All that, and it doesn’t have to come from a chicken. Good for the chicken, good for you.
I talked up aquafaba to fabulous Flavor of Italy podcaster and friend Wendy Holloway, but I sense she’s still not quite convinced of its wonders. Have a listen to our recent chat, make my gateau des roie and lmk what you think. Watch out for the bean.
The recipe for my gateau des roie is for paid subscribers and can be found way down at the bottom. Not a paid subscriber? Become one now and enjoy a holiday discount!
Aquafaba is also the secret to my plant-based version of chocolately bonet —- luscious but stylish. Of course, it is. It’s Italian.
Bonet (Italian steamed chocolate creme caramel thoroughly veganized)
1 cup unsweetened oat milk
3 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons cashew or almond butter
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tablespoon amaretto or 2 teaspoons vanilla and 1 teaspoon almond extract
6 tablespoons agave
3 tablespoons aquafaba
Lightly oil a 6-cup pudding mold or baking dish.
Bonet needs to steam, rather than bake. For this, we place the pudding mold inside a larger ovenproof bowl or pan half-filled with water. Set the larger pan in the oven.
Preheat oven to 350℉.
Pour oat milk into a large saucepan and heat over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add the chopped chocolate and cashew or almond butter. Stir gently until chocolate and cashew butter are fully dissolved.
Sift in unbleached flour and almond flour. Stir again. Add amaretto, agave and aquafaba and stir gently until ingredients are well-combined and pudding thickens slightly.
Pour into the prepared pudding mold.
Carefully set the pudding mold inside the bain marie and steam for 1 hour, or until a toothpick or knife blade inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cooling is important. Allow bonet to cool on the counter, then cover and refrigerate for at least four hours before unmolding.
It can also be made a day before serving, making it ideal for holiday entertaining.
Serves 6 to 8.
Chickpeas plus a little of their aquafaba are the sweet secret to these chocolate chip cookies. Skeptical? So was I. Early versions of chickpea cookies and black bean brownies were earnest but heavy and pretty much tasted like hummus with chocolate chips. But P, a new bean fan, was excited to share a recipe. P’s been switching out beans for potatoes and other starchy simple carbs so he stays energized all day and doesn’t get the dull simple carb blahs. These cookies do all that plus satisfy an occasional sweet craving.
P adapted his recipe from Baking With Clarity. I messed around with his version and From my Bowl’s Caitlin Shoemaker’s. I noticed all the online recipes called for draining the aquafaba. Honey, that stuff’s a keeper. It helps bind the cookies, so you get chocolate chip cookies that are sweet, tender, gluten-free and protein-packed. It’s the sweet secret of the beans.
Secret of the Bean Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 15-ounce can chickpeas
2 tablespoons aquafaba
1/2 cup smooth, unsalted almond butter or your favorite nut butter
1/2 cup blanched almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or 1/2 3.5 ounce dark chocolate bar chopped
Using a food processor, blitz together the chickpeas, aquafaba and almond butter until smooth and creamy.
Add the almond flour, baking powder, agave nectar and vanilla. Mix together again just until incorporated. The cookie dough will have the color and texture of hummus Cover and chill for at least an hour or up to overnight.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350℉. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Stir the chocolate chips or chopped chocolate into the cookie dough. Spoon up heaping teaspoons of cookie dough and drop them onto the baking sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches apart,
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until cookies are puffed and golden. They will emerge soft but firm up as they cool.
Keep covered and refrigerated. Best enjoyed within 3 days.
Makes 2 dozen cookies.
Do we really want another holiday gift guide? Sure we do:
If we’re talking beans, look no further than heirloom bean company Rancho Gordo. I’m proud to belong to the coveted the Rancho Gordo Bean Club (we call ourselves the leguminati), and I love their beans. But Rancho Gordo also has kitchenware, including wooden spoons I’m obsessed with. They’re like magic wands.
For another kind of goodness from another rancho, go for the dates from fabulous Rancho Meladuco. These are no mere dates, they’re plump, sweet, squidgy and totally dateworthy.
Miami wine merchant Jeffrey Wolfe of Wolfe’s Wines knows just the right bottle — or bottles — to serve for every occasion, be it champagne for a stellar New Year’s Eve celebration or a riesling or Rhone to make a weeknight meal sing. He’s shipping everywhere — I saw the stacks of boxes going out this weekend.
Monde Epice, the Miami-based spice and tea company lives up to its name — world of spice. The family has been in the spice trade for four generations, dating back almost a century, sourcing and blending quality spices and teas from all over the world They’ll ship to wherever you are.
Olio Piro I have called this the Sophia Loren of olive oils, silky yet sexy. It’s family-owned, Italian and artisanal, and super-high in polyphenols, the phytonutrients bestowing goodness upon your being.
Miami’s L’Artisane delivers the flakiest croissants, crisp, lighter-than-air macarons, and pillowy, Proust-worthy madeleines — all plant-based.
For more local flavor, check out Edible South Florida’s gift guide. And while you’re at it, consider an Edible subscription — how else will you know James Beard semifinalist Jeremy Ford has gone from chef to farmer?
Finally, consider gifting a paid subscription to Broccoli Rising. Paid subscribers get fresh weekly content, new vegan recipes, plus access to interviews, exclusives and extras galore. Do it now and get half off for a year’s subscription.