hummus without chickpeas isn't really hummus, is it? but it's my favarite.

momentary pause on the root-toot-tuber seasonal express. this is, after all, california. and it turns out that the baja region of california and mexico have a pretty sweet heirloom vegetable season come november. do you know how hard it is to walk past a crate full of perfectly pretty pesticide free heirloom peppers? it is impossible. you'd have to be heartless & soulless & pretty darn near blind to do something that foolish. especially when these guys were grown in-state and are only $1.29/lb. come on, i had no choice but to step away from the sweet potato bins and pick some up. so then i decided the little baby rainbow carrot nuggets could not be left alone either. so cute, so fresh, also so cheap. i turned and caught sight of the mini kirby cucumbers and all of a sudden my theme became crystal clear. ladies and gentlemen, we have an adorable crudite on our hands.

now a crudite needs to be dipped. and so i had the inspiration to make hummus. then i had the inspiration to make hummus but without chickpeas. any bean, after all, can be mashed and blended. and so i grabbed a can of fava beans, which as a soaked and cooked bean, more closely resemble the shape and texture of a chickpea than say pinto or kidney or black beans do. here we go again with misnomers, technically fava beans are peas and not beans at all. but because they produce a "bean" inside their shell and fix nitrogen in the soil, we lump them in with legumes, instead of more accurately labeling them as vetches. whatever we call them, fava beans are one of the most ancient foods we have and are also very, very healthy. fava beans are a good source of fiber, vitamin a (skin, vision, growth, bone development), potassium (blood pressure and heart function), phosphorus (bones, teeth, helps the body utilize vitamins), the amino acid known as l-dopa, or dopamine (works as a neurotransmitter in the brain ), and thiamine (nerve function).

fava bean spread

1 can fava beans, drain & reserve a little bit of the liquid

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 lemon

1 tbs sea salt

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp turmeric

add fava beans, garlic & a little bit of the liquid from the beans in a blender. blend on "puree" until the mixture starts to become smooth.

add the juice of a lemon, salt, paprika and turmeric.

blend until it's the consistency you desire.

enjoy.

yes, it is that ridiculously easy.

(i mean, of course, if you wanted to take on the challenge, you could start with fresh fava beans, shell them, blanch them, skin them and then mash them. it would be more labor intensive and would give you an end product that would have a green color, like the fresh fava bean. it would be pretty. and it would no doubt be delicious. but sometimes birds get busy and the quick way is good enough. i'm just fine with my super quick can bean cheat.)

you can serve it right away. or you can let it chill and settle for a little while. you can serve it with fresh veggies as a dip for crudite. you can serve it with crackers or bread. you could layer it into a taco or burrito. it would go very well in a lot of middle eastern cuisine, i mean it would be great spread on kibby. i hope to incorporate it into a stuffed cabbage roll recipe at some point. it's pretty versatile. and, most importantly, it's easy peasy cheap and breezy. and the tiger likes it.

rainbow roots.

roots are in season. and i am not just trying to justify the fact that i haven't highlighted my hair since before summer started. i am talking about vegetables. it is fall, even if berkeley somehow always feels like heaven outside and there are no leaves changing color and no threat of the first frost, and that means the roots have it. carrots, turnips, potatoes - it is indeed your time to shine. so tonight i let rainbow colored carrots take the driver's seat and we enjoyed ginger garlic carrots with baby bok choy, black beans, and rice noodles in a rice wine vinegar and blood orange reduction.

rainbow carrots are so so good. and what is the sweetest part of cooking with them is that they provide such a wide range of antioxidants. we normally eat carrots for their vitamin a and beta-carotene. which, yes, in and of itself is a good enough reason to include them in the diet. (i mean mr. magoo is cool and all, but who really wants to *be* him) but! there are different compounds with different health benefits in each color of the carrot rainbow. so cook up a bunch of rainbow carrots and not only are you getting all those eye sight saving vitamin a and beta-carotene benefits in the orange carrots, you are also getting lycophene, which is what causes the red carrots to look red, and is a carotene known for its heart disease and cancer fighting properties, xanthophylls from the yellow carrots that are pigments similar to beta-carotene which also support good eye health, and the anthocyanins in purple carrots, which are powerful antioxidants in a totally different class from other carotenes. one vegetable, so many different sources of nutrition. one stop shopping that doesn't require a strip mall or concrete jungle megastore. that is an idea this bird will always get behind.

ginger garlic carrots with baby bok choy, black beans, and rice noodles in a rice wine vinegar and blood orange reduction

1 bunch rainbow carrots

2 small bunches baby bok choy

1 bundle or serving of rice noodles

4 cloves garlic

fresh ginger

3/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 blood orange

sea salt, to taste

wash, cut tops off & halve carrots

wash & cut baby bok choy at bottom steam to separate leaves

chop garlic cloves

thinly slice ginger

open & drain 1 can of black beans

steam carrots and bok choy with ginger and garlic (save about 1/3 of the garlic and ginger for sauce). drain.

prepare rice noodles. drain.

in small frying pan, heat garlic and ginger, add rice wine vinegar and juice of the blood orange. cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer. (*since there is no thickening agent, you are technically infusing your rice wine vinegar base with the blood orange, garlic and ginger flavors, but it is still reducing as some of it evaporates in the steam. nerd alert, i know.)

mix noodles, veggies, beans, and sauce. add sea salt to taste. enjoy.