A slow, gentle build

To a digestive tract out of practice, beans should be added back with care. A scorching summer made bean-rich meals redundant this year. Little in my garden survived the appalling heat. The tomatoes, though, they loved it, dropping shocking amounts of sad leaves yet still managing to produce what I can proudly refer to as a crop. Imagine being undeterred by consecutive 46 degree days? That’s a plant built for survival. Bush beans however, shriveled before the first breath of real heat hit. By the time the hot winds arrived, they’d long since keeled over and expired. Can’t blame them. I knew how they felt.

Yes. A slow, gentle build toward wind-resistance is what’s required, particularly with the prospect of a new bag of chickpeas and another of tiny black lentils to cook in the cooler months ahead. Well-soaked, well-tended, soft legumes make for an easier digestive ride in autumn, so something light, say, a soup, is ideal. Deborah Madison’s gorgeous recipe is somewhat like a Japanese minestrone, should such a beast exist – aduki beans (highly prized for their digestibility) miso, mirin and sesame oil, all simmered in a European way with bay leaves and carrots and celery. Herbal, healing and satisfying in the way that bean-y things often are, but light on the tastebuds and, thankfully, forgiving on the body.

Millet and sesame balls – small as marbles - add something to the presentation, much as a garlicky crouton might to its Italian friend. In their place, I’d welcome some proper soba noodles as a Japanese nod to the pasta in minestrone. Snapped into lengths, cooked and stirred through at the final stage, they would add some of that bulk and textural interest that blokes seem to require in order to accept that yes, a bowl of soup is the entire evening meal.

Or is that just my blokes?

Aduki and celery leaf soup feeds 4-6
From Deborah Madison's soup book. You’ll want an entire head of celery here, as you’re attempting to balance the sweetness of aduki with the assertive, herbal flavour of celery leaves. A mixture of the darker outer and pale inner leaves is ideal, but flat-leaf parsley is a good substitute if yours look neither edible nor enticing. Soak the beans before you do anything – even a short soak will help them swell nicely. Even better the next day.    

1 cup of aduki beans, soaked for a couple of hours, then drained
Toasted sesame oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons of mirin
2 long, thick slices of ginger
Sea salt
Handful of celery or parsley leaves
2 tablespoons of white miso

Warm 1 tablespoon of oil in a wide saucepan. Add the onion, carrot, celery stalks and bay leaves and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Add the mirin, let it slowly evaporate then add the beans, ginger and 1½ litres (6 cups) of water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a burble and cover. Simmer in this way for 1 hour.

Lift the lid, add a little salt, pop the lid back on and simmer until the beans crush easily.

Discard the bay and ginger. Take a few ladles of beans and puree them with the miso. Return the puree to the soup, throw in the celery leaves and warm through. Serve with a few millet and sesame balls (below) bobbing about in each bowl, adding extra drops of sesame oil if you like the flavour.      

Millet and sesame balls
These can (and probably, for sanity’s sake, should) be made well in advance.

1/3 cup of millet
Sea salt
4 tablespoons of sesame seeds
Tahini (optional)

Toast the millet in a dry frying pan over a high heat, tossing constantly. The moment you hear the millet ‘pop’, remove from the heat and rinse well. Drain (a tricky business - millet is teeny tiny) and place in a small saucepan. Pour over 1 cup of water, add a little salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until the liquid is absorbed.

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan and cool on a plate. When the millet is cooked, beat in the toasted seeds and, using wet hands, form the mixture into marble-sized balls, adding a little tahini if yours won’t adhere.

 

Laurie of the unendingly inspiring Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska is this month's host of Susan's well-loved event, My Legume Love Affair.

Entries close on the 31st of March.

Comments

[Johanna]

what a shame I just used the rest of my packet of millet - these millet sesame balls look lovely - must try them once I have more millet - and a tomato crop from the backyard sounds like one of life's little luxuries - especially after the horrendously hot days this summer!

[nicole]

Oh wow, that looks simply amazing. Pretty and nourishing, both! Yum.

[Christina]

This sounds lovely, lovely, lovely. Delicious.

I'm getting a later start than I'd like to plant my beans this year. I just put them in last week. Last year, I started beans in February with fabulous success. The only beans I know that love the heat are the Asian yardlong beans who are unfazed by the hottest days, but don't go well without water. When did you plant the beans? Maybe this year, you can try as early as the beginning of July (I think that'd be my equivalent of February-plantings.)

I just had to scroll up and look at that soup again. Man, I love celery leaves. Yum.

[Ganga]

Oh I just love those birdseed balls in the soup! Soba noodles or Udon noodles would be wonderful. Maybe even rice noodles?

That heat in summer! It was incredible. Worse for Melbourne, I think. Here, we build our houses for hot weather. Melbourne, I think, builds them for cold weather?

xx

[Making Love In The Kitchen]

What a beautiful recipe. Those millet sesame balls look amazing.

[shula]

Can't talk....

mouthful of crabapple jelly.

Trying to eat it before the child does. It sent her into a frenzy.

xo

[rachel]

Our seasonal difference is both strange and lovely. You are easing into autumn while in Rome I am doing the same into spring - she is being a little tricky this year, but she is most certainly here.
Those millet and sesame balls are a delight, I will not wait till autumn to try those.

[Lisa]

Perfect Lucy and I'm just loving those millet balls. Such an elegant and nourishing dinner.

[Lucy]

Johanna: I was floored by the way they just kept on producing toms by the bowlful each day!

Nicole: Super-easy, too. Which is always a good thing in my book.

Christina: When did I plant them?...hmmm...flips through diary...looks like I planted them too late. In October, which clearly proves, once again, that general planting times need to be adjusted for your own climate. I'm writing 'Beans, July' right now in the garden notes. Celery leaves are great stuff, man. I love that iron-y, bitter hit.

Ganga: I think you're on to something there. Our current house is old; build in that Arts and Crafts style that lots of places in Melbourne are and, lovely though it is, it is definitely NOT built for lengthy heatwaves. And, oh yes; rice noodles would be great slurpy fun here!

Meghan: They're cute, aren't they? The dog even loved them. One rolled on to the floor and she snaffled it up quick as a flash.

Shula: Yay! Thrilled ya both like it - the boys here are eating it faster than I'd like them to, so I've hidden a few jars in the linen press. They NEVER look in there.

Rachel: Naughty, ellusive Spring! She'll romp into Rome before you know it, I'm certain. Love those early signals. Millet and sesame are great together - better together than apart, I think.

Lisa: Aren't they fun? Knew they'd be up your alley.

[Wendy]

Quite taken with those little sesame balls.

Tell me - did your blokes accept that soup was dinner and nothing else in the end? I haven't had any success in that field at all!

[Lucy]

Wendy: no, naughty blokes, they did not.

Well, they did when I said that there was ice-cream in the freezer and a few cookies left, but without the possibility of dessert, they were not happy. I'll keep chipping away...

[reddoorread]

hmm soup. lovely.

those millet sesame balls look awesome. are they best with soup or could you eat them with other things too? thanks

[Lucy]

Love, you can eat 'em any which way you please! They make a good snacky thingy. I once deep-fried them, or a version of them, and they were delicious.

And sometimes, I hide a little something in the centre - like a little piece of umbeboshi plum or half an olive. A nice little salt surprise.

[Callipygia]

I was just wondering if you've ever fried those millet balls cause they remind me of mochi in Ozoni. Your boys surely have expansive tastes buds!

[Arwen from Hoglet K]

The millet balls look great. It's a good way to get some gluten free carbohydrate in your soup.

[la ninja]

No, it's not just "your blokes" and, by the looks of it, I suspect nationality plays no part in it either. It's one of those universal conflicts, ha!

That soup looks just delish and dead interesting, by the way! I have to admit I'd never seen a bowl of soup with bird-fat-ball-food-look-alike-dumplings before (just jesting) but I'm already sold (I'm not even going to try selling the concept to the boy, though!) ;)

[Lucy]

Calli: Their mum rang me a year ago to thank me for getting them to eat a variety of things they may never have touched. Oscar gets excited about a tray of roasted veg for his tea. Not bad for 15, I reckon.

Arwen: Always looking for new ways to get those alternative grains into my blokes (and, naturally, myself). They are easy, too, which always helps.

la ninja: Pleased to hear it! Never ending, that particular discussion in my home. Unless it's minestrone with pasta. In which case we're home 'n hosed!