Cooking for only one’s self means lots of snacking, rather than full meals. While Mr. Tess has been working out of town for so long, I’ve certainly had my share of “mini-meals.” This is a relatively healthy snack—a soybean dip that is quite like hummus. Ms. Shimbo notes the similarity of Japanese tofu dressing to the Middle Eastern hummus in both flavor and texture. Her experiments with using tofu to make hummus resulted in an unpleasantly smooth and rather slimy dip.
Her use of soybeans, however made a very tasty and nutritious dip. I’d not call it a particularly Japanese flavor, but it’s a nice change from using garbanzo beans (chick peas). I’ve found that garbanzo beans take an incredibly long time to cook, and I’ve never gotten them as soft as the canned ones. The soybeans cook relatively quickly, and make a nice smooth puree.
I’ve had these dried soybeans for quite some time, and The Challenge to Save Money (skip the market for a week) from Ella inspired me to finally use them.
Soybean Hummus
Daizu Hamosu
page 175
- 1/2 cup dried soybeans, soaked in cold wate overnight and drained
- 3 Tablespoons Japnaes sesame paste, preferably, or tahini
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- juice if 1 lemon, squeezed fresh
- 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- Cayenne and ground cumin to taste
Put the drained soybeans into a large pot, and cover them with fresh water by 4 inches. Cook the beans over medium-low heat until they are tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Drain the beans, and disard the cooking water. In a food processor, blend the soybeans and all the rest of the ingedients with 1/4 cup warm water, into a creamy paste.
Serve the bean dip with rice crackers, or with vegetable sticks.
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