Broccoli Rising and Counting on Beans
Tonight, the Muslim holiday of Ramadan begins, with 30 days of fasting, reflection, and prayer. Thursday is Pi Day, the delight of math lovers and pie eaters everywhere. Sunday is St. Patrick’s Day, celebrated with revelry and rivers of green beer. We’re in for a hell of a week. So what do these three diverse events have in common? Beans. It’s a stretch, but stick with me, I can make it work.
I can make it work because I’m a longtime bean believer, a pusher of pulses (that’s dried beans), and a member of the Beans is How coalition, with the goal of doubling global bean consumption by 2028.
Let’s start tonight with Ramadan. Olives and dates are often the first foods people eat to break the daily fast. They’re restorative, digestible, and help level out blood sugar. However, no matter how many you eat, they’re not enough to keep you fueled and keep you going. That’s where beans come in. They balance blood sugar, too, and provide protein, fiber, substance, and solace in Ramadan dishes including
You read that right. Beans and pie together! It’s enjoyed at Ramadan, but comes with a fraught American history which has kept it from reaching a wider audience. Bean pie is mildly spiced and mildly sweet, kinda like pumpkin pie, the scent of which is known to arouse men. That alone is enough to sell me.
I took my flavoring cues from divine James Beard Award-winner Jessica B. Harris — ginger and nutmeg are bean pie musts — then looked at my own vegan sweet potato pumpkin pie, which uses aquafaba in place of eggs. And so, armed with both canned chickpeas for the aquafaba, and cooked from scratch cannellini for the filling, I entered into the kitchen, game on.
Behold Exhibit A, my first bean pie recipe attempt. Like other bean pies, it isn’t exactly eye candy. It’s homey, rustic, yet with a surprising caramelly richness. But it’s not yet a bean pie recipe worthy of you. Let us say it’s in development and speak no more of it at present.
But if my Pi Day bean pie recipe failed to gel (in more ways than one), I’ve come through for you for St. Patrick’s Day. Better known for bubble and squeak and soda bread (check out my new, improved vegan recipe), the Irish do eat beans. In my research, I found a mention of Irish Parliament Bean Soup. I was ecstatic. But curious. I’m a lover of all things Irish, and Irish Parliament Bean Soup was new to me.
Sources kept referring back to Meg O’Malley’s, which is not in Ireland at all, but Melbourne, Florida. Hunh. Further investigation revealed Irish Parliament Soup is identical to America’s classic Senate Bean Soup which is basically white beans, water or broth, and um, a ham hock. Swap crumbled house-smoked tempeh, aka tempeh bacon, for the ham hock and voila, you’ve got a bean soup without political or religious affiliations or contentious backstory. You have Nonpartisan Bean Soup for everyone. Serve it up for Ramadan, Pi Day, St. Patrick’s Day or any time you like.
Beans are sustainable, affordable, accessible, culturally appropriate, whatever your culture is, and they’re the original plantbased protein. They can feed all of us with less environmental impact. At a time when we’re divided by politics, religion and more, beans can bring us together. They have to.
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