Hummus has succumbed to the fusion evolution.  You may now find hundreds of variations that have not a single ingredient common to the original puree of chic peas, tahini, garlic and lemon. 
 
Hummus is the Arabic word for chic pea. So when someone from the Middle East - where the dish originates - says hummus, they always mean “with chic peas”.  (Or garbanzo bean - same thing.) That could mean a dish with the whole legume as an ingredient or it could be the silky puree that has catapulted hummus onto the world stage as some kind of dip.
 
The transition of hummus to mean any pureed dip, where cooks take great liberties with the ingredients, is far from an unusual phenomenon in the culinary world. Look at curry, for example: it started as a sauce and has spawned an impressive worldwide lineage of variations that are far from its original self. 

This is the nature of cuisine and a beautiful thing, if you ask me. Why not allow an accepted idea to morph and evolve through the contribution of innovative ingredients, flavors, techniques?  When we approach food, and life, this way, our possibilities are forever expanding.
 
However, I do believe in maintaining some integrity of the original dish. When I am taking liberties with a traditional recipe, I will always include some key element of the original. So you will never find a hummus recipe from me with neither chic pea nor tahini. The tiny bit of Puritan in me insists.
 
Otherwise, anything is possible.

​Winter squash as well as sweet potatoes make ideal substitutions for chic peas when reinventing hummus. The orange flesh of sweet potatoes, pumpkin or butternut bring a vibrancy that chic peas cannot. I love the sweetness and color they contribute.  The rich, bitter silkiness of tahini shares an earthiness that bring the two into a harmony that just makes sense. I prefer these two together to chic pea hummus any day.
 
I love any recipe that calls for roasted squash or sweet potatoes. There are few easier tasks in the kitchen than throwing one of these onto a baking sheet and into the oven to be forgotten for a bit. (And no peeling required!) Roasting either of these two winter vegetables with the end goal of pureeing means an almost irreverence to the kitchen timer. Let them go awhile (up to an hour) until they’re so soft inside their skins, your job is mostly done for you.  Let them cool to the touch, then scoop out the glossy flesh. Discard the skins.
 
Below is a recipe that simply uses sweet potatoes as a replacement for chic peas. Otherwise the tahini, garlic and lemon juice are standard. A little salt, of course. And a bit of cumin. 

​A further suggestion is given for taking the sweet potato hummus to the next level of exotic: a Persian incarnation. I’ll go this extra step when I am trying to impress someone. Pomegranate seeds are little jewels, anyway; so they alone make a huge impact. And they’re in season now. 

Working with tahini is an act of faith and perseverance. You must be able to hold fast to your conviction that everything will turn out fine. ​

When it's fresh, sesame seed butter is smooth and a bit runny. That can deceive you into believing that making a sauce with it will be a breeze. (Not-so fresh tahini can be dry and clumpy, like the last bit of peanut butter at the bottom of the jar. It will require extra patience.)

​Tahini is bitter on its own; so most recipes are going to call for the addition of water, citrus juice or oil. But when tahini meets liquid, it typically seizes up... appears to break.... becomes something scary, nothing like the lusciousness it was moments before. 

I love messing around with super nutritious esoteric ingredients, using them to reinvent more familiar dishes in a cleaner way. I’ve used chia seeds to try to get somewhere close to my grandmother’s banana pudding. I’ve used flaxseeds to mimic an egg.  I am completely comfortable with the idea of pureed cashews as a “cheese.” In the pursuit of optimal health, I am not afraid to take risks.
 
But sometimes I wish it could be like the old days, when we didn’t have to think so hard about what foods were healthy; we just had a repertoire of dishes that were familiar and we never questioned them. My grandmother had a repertoire of family heirloom recipes built entirely around seasonality, with little regard to nutrient content. I envy her free reign with butter and cream atop all of those garden vegetables; all that bacon grease stored on the stovetop in a coffee can.
 
As our knowledge of the connection between our food and health expands, we are forced to look at our family’s traditional foods with new eyes. And so for people like me, with an extra keen interest in nutrition and a willingness to experiment, things can get interesting. 

​Socca is an example of a dish that makes me happy because it hits all the notes of a clean diet, but it is a time-honored classic. Chic pea flour is hardly a familiar ingredient here in the states, but it’s been used since ancient times all over the rest of the world. There are variations of this crepe like, oven baked, four ingredient flatbread in Italy (farinata or torta de ceci)…in Gibraltar (calentita)…in Uruguay (faina) and northern India (cheela).
 
It is gluten free, dairy free, sugar free and soy free only by coincidence, not design, making it so easy for me to adore.

Chic pea flour, also know as Besan or Gram flour, can be found in any Indian grocery store or ordered on line. I have started to see it in regular grocery stores here and there. It is a denser, heavier flour so take the time to sift it before adding in the water. 

You're making a pancake batter so a whisk is your tool of choice. The batter will be thin and should be lump free. If sifting the dry flour didn't yield you a smooth batter, go ahead and put the wet batter through a sieve as well. 

Rosemary is a traditional Provencal herb of choice, but there are no limitations here. I have used chives, cilantro or thyme. The objective with the fresh herbs is to lend flavor notes to the Socca. (And I like the phytonutrients they lend as well.) Chic pea flour has a bitter earthy flavor that needs balance from the floral herbs. 

It is customary to let the Socca batter sit for several hours before cooking. I have used the batter immediately and seen little difference in the results. But I like that I can make the batter ahead of time - even in the morning before heading to work - and cook the Socca whenever I'm ready to eat. 

The key to Socca is a super hot pan. So set your oven to at least 450 and let it preheat. Once it is preheated, heat a dry 9 to 12 inch cast iron pan for about 5 minutes. 

Remove the heated pan from the oven and swirl in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Then the batter. Make sure you coat the pan well with the batter. The oil will mix in and float on top. That's what you want. 

Put the Socca on the top oven rack and let it bake for about 5 minutes until it is well set. Then turn your broiler on for another 2 minutes or so until you see the top browning. Carefully remove from the oven. Slide a thin spatula around the edges and then underneath to loosen; and then onto a plate or cutting board. Always serve Socca immediately. 

There is something about this dish that really plays on my fantasy of living in the French countryside. It’s a traditional Provencal summer dish, the ingredients of which could be gathered solely from one well-planned garden in July and throughout most of August.  The ingredients are not exclusive to the south of France; my own grandmother would have grown the traditional zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers in her garden in rural Kentucky.

It’s the abundance of herbs that inspire the romance around this dish for me.  (My grandmother didn’t grow many herbs). Any combination of summer herbs: basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary are typical. I’ve read some French cooks even add fresh lavender, which I’ve yet to try. Some fantasies may best be kept elusive.
                                                      
Perhaps the romance lies in how ratatouille represents what is best about French country cooking: simplicity. It’s really just a vegetable stew. There is a brilliant humility about it. ​

Like so many other iconic national dishes, ratatouille has some essential ingredients - eggplant, zucchini and tomato - along with possible other elements that vary from cook to cook. These elements are usually guarded like a dark family secret.

My recipe includes balsamic vinegar: not a traditional ingredient to ratatouille, although some cooks do use it.  It is a sweet and tart contribution.

The vibrant colors of the ingredients reflect the depth of phytonutrients inherent in this dish: yet another reason to love it. For example: the deep purple eggplant (anthocyanin), the red tomatoes (lycopene), and the green zucchinis (chlorophyll). Instead of the usual red or green bell peppers, look for the orange or purple or yellow for beta-carotene and Vitamin C (source here).The aromatics (garlic and onions) bring allyl sulfides and bioflavonoids, for cancer prevention (source here). And those beautiful herbs I love bring in polyphenols and endless other beneficial nutrients (source here). I think it would be fair to call ratatouille a power dish - nutritionally speaking. 

​You can put a ratatouille together in various ways. I love the beautiful photos of the dish done with layers of sliced vegetables arranged in a circle, like a tian.  But I am suspicious of how well the flavors meld presented like that. The success of a good ratatouille is the synergy between the ingredients, the melding of flavors. That’s what makes it a stew.

However, that does not mean that the cubed vegetables (as this recipe suggests) should collapse into each other completely. Mushy and unrecognizable is not the goal. 

The secret to maintaining the integrity of each vegetable is two-part. First, take the time to sear the zucchini and eggplant to give them a nice crust. Second, don’t cook the ratatouille too long.

​NOTE ABOUT THE EGGPLANT: The eggplant can be cubed with the skin left on, if you like.  Some find the skins of eggplant bitter and if so, you can remove them. You can also take the time to salt and let the eggplant drain for half an hour to further remove any bitterness. Be sure to rinse and dry the cubed eggplant if you do this step.

NOTE ABOUT THE ZUCCHINI: Make sure you let the zucchini (and eggplant) get a nice brown crust. Don't overcrowd the pan while searing the vegetables; you may need to do it in several batches. It's worth the effort: you gain some texture to the vegetables that will keep them from becoming mushy. 

When I make this sauce, it’s usually because I am making some kind of Middle Eastern or Indian rice and vegetable dish.  It’s a dairy free version of an Indian raita or a Greek tzatziki sauce. The two are so similar. There are inevitably leftovers, which means for the next few days, I will put this stuff on everything else I eat: scrambled eggs, roasted vegetables, green salad. It’s so versatile; I should keep a batch made at all times. 

​And when you look at the ingredient list, that’s not such a bad idea. The fermented coconut or almond yogurt has probiotics. There’s vitamin c from the lemon juice. There’s the anti-inflammatory boost from the garlic (you could get crazy and add some fresh ginger too!) and cucumber.  And fresh mint, like most fresh herbs, is full of antioxidants and other phytonutrients. Research here.

​Veganizing a cucumber yogurt sauce has been pretty easy for a while with all the soy yogurt products on the market. But until recently, if you were vegan and soy free, it wasn’t an option.  I love both the So Delicious brand of coconut yogurt and the Kite Hill almond yogurts that are readily available now. Look for plain, unsweetened varieties of any nondairy yogurt you choose for this recipe.
 
Coconut milk yogurt tends to be a little thicker and a brighter shade of white than almond milk yogurt. But those details are negligible. Experiment with both, as well as the other brands on the market, to discover which kind best suits you. Always look for brands without added preservatives like carrageenan. The only ingredients necessary are the nut milk, probiotics and something like guar or xanthum gum or pectin which are natural thickeners.

​You could handle the cucumbers a number of ways for this sauce. You could leave the skins on. I sometimes do if I am fortunate enough to have an organic cucumber in my possession. You could peel and discard the skins.  If the tiny seeds don’t bother you, leave them in. I tend to deseed most things: it’s a texture thing for me.
 
You could shred the cucumbers into the sauce. Or you can dice them.  The size of the dice is also completely subjective.  You can dice the cucumbers large, medium or small. How much of their presence do you want to feel in the sauce? 

​Lately I have been mincing the peeled and deseeded cucumbers with a micro grater so that the flesh melts into the sauce, contributing flavor but little of the normal crunch.

They shoot up from garlic plants like a crazy stalk and then fall gracefully into quirky curls, this way and that, heavy from their own weight. And when their curvaceous seed pods burst into flowers, you know the garlic bulbs below the soil are nearly, if not completely, ready for harvest.


Garlic scapes taste like garlic.  A crunchier, greener version of garlic.  They can be sautéed or stir-fried or braised in place of or with regular cloves, heightening the garlic flavor.


Garlic scapes are in season in June. It’s a fleeting season, so a sense of urgency is important. Snatch them up from your local farmers’ market. Though they’re not available for long, they will keep for awhile. 


Seek to preserve their sinuous nature when you cook with them. Challenge yourself to slice them lengthwise, creating long thin wisps that twist and turn in the dish. It’s a fun exercise. Alternatively, dice them fine, like a green onion.

​GARLIC SCAPE CONFIT:
Cut about 5 stalks in half lengthwise, or dice them.
Peel two or three heads of garlic. Place the wispy scapes and peeled garlic cloves into a very shallow baking dish, about one inch deep.  Add a few sprigs of fresh thyme or other herbs.  Pour enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the cloves and scapes. Cover the dish with foil and place in an oven set at 200 degrees.

Bake for about 30 minutes or so until the garlic cloves have softened. Check them after 15 minutes to make sure they aren’t browning too fast.  You want light amber, not dark brown.  Remove from the oven.

At this point you have something glorious:  Garlic infused olive oil and soft roasted garlic cloves.

Serve the garlic cloves and scapes straight out of the baking dish alongside grilled or toasted bread.  Or discard the scapes and thyme and store the garlic cloves and oil in an airtight jar.
The cloves can be tossed in salads or stirred into a rice dish; use the oil for vinaigrette or for drizzling onto fried eggs.  You will find ways.

ARTICHOKE y AJO:
Take the garlic scape confit to another level by adding roasted artichoke hearts for a vegan variation on a traditional Mexican Camarones y Ajo.  

After you pull the confit from the oven, crank up the heat to 400 degrees.  If you are using canned or frozen artichoke hearts, make sure they are well drained and dry. Water is not a friend to the deep caramel results you are seeking when roasting.  On a baking sheet with olive oil, roast the hearts for 15 minutes or so until caramelized.

While the artichokes are roasting, zest one lime and set aside to use as a garnish.  Cut the lime in half and when the hearts come out of the oven, squeeze the lime over them and sprinkle with sea salt.

Add them to the garlic confit and garnish the dish with lime zest and fresh ground pepper.  If you like heat, throw in some crushed red pepper flakes.

Serve with grilled bread, gluten free crackers or wooden skewers for spearing.

CAMARONES y AJO:  
The traditional Mexican Camarones y Ajo that inspired the vegan version of this dish can be prepared the same way as the artichokes for a seafood version of this dish.  Use a pound of small or medium peeled and deveined shrimp and roast in the same way as the artichoke hearts above. When the shrimp go from deep pink to pale, they’re ready.

I would love to forage for ramps one day.  I would do it more for the photo opportunity than for the fun of digging around the wet floor of the woods. I imagine the sun coming through the trees and hitting the little patches of graceful ramp leaves and how beautiful that would be. 
 
I wonder how many times I might have walked over a crop playing in the woods as a child. My grandfather, a farmer, never talked about ramps or brought any home from the woods around the farm like he did persimmons and papaws. That leads me to believe ramps didn’t grow in that part of rural Kentucky. I had never heard of the precious wild spring onions until I was already grown.

And truthfully, I didn’t pay much attention when I did hear about them - at first. It’s one of those things in life that might stay on the periphery of your consciousness, then one day come into full focus. That’s when my devotion set in.
 
Ramps have a cult following.  Here’s why:  they grow wild (intrigue), they have a short season (rare) and they are in short supply (coveted).  It’s as much these reasons as their flavor profile that has made them so hot in recent years. Though they are wild onions, I often forget that and call them wild garlic.  The flavor suggests a hybrid of the two. It’s strong.
 
The leaves are what I really love about ramps.  Otherwise, I would stick to my favorite green onion, the leek. Ramp leaves are beautiful. They’re long and triangular and elegant. You could use a small bunch to fan yourself, if temperatures were high in late April, early May. The bulbs are like a regular green onion, small, pungent. But the leaves are hearty in volume, delicate in texture, and can be prepared in countless ways. Their generous length means you can julienne them lengthwise and toss them with string pasta, like the recipe here.
 
It’s been so rainy here lately that I have skipped the farmers market, knowing that I was dangling on the edge of ramp season. This week, I scored a pound from a friend who had hoarded more than his share in his refrigerator. I took it as a sign that I should go ahead and share this recipe, despite being late in the season. I hope fate is as kind to you this weekend. ​

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THE RECIPE
 
Serves 4
 
Ingredients:
1 pound Jovial Gluten Free Tagliatelle or other string pasta of your choice
Butternut squash, about 1 pound
Ramps, 1 pound leaves and bulbs
Simple Mills Grain free Rosemary and sea salt crackers, 1 cup
            Or substitute 1 cup any GF breadcrumbs + 1 tablespoon minced
​             rosemary + 1 teaspoon sea salt + 1 teaspoon olive oil
 
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 cloves garlic, finely minced.
Juice and zest of one lemon
¼ gram or generous pinch saffron, softened in half inch of warm water
1 ½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon white pepper

Note about the pasta:
I used Jovial’s gluten free brown rice tagliatelle (made with eggs), because I wanted a pasta that would accommodate the long strands of ramp leaves. You can use any string pasta, of course. Jovial’s tagliatelle is as good as the handmade pappardelle I used to buy for this dish.
 
Note about the sauce:
The butternut squash gives this sauce structure and body. But it will thicken quickly, especially if reheated. You can add in extra vegetable stock to thin it out, if you like. Or even a little water.
 
Note about the breadcrumbs:
These are here purely for a textural punch and can be left out if you want. I’ve recently started keeping Simple Mills almond flour crackers (the rosemary is my current favorite) in the house at all times and discovered one night they make great breadcrumbs, with an easy whirl in the food processor. You can use any brand of gluten free breadcrumb and toast them with some chopped rosemary, lemon zest, sea salt and olive oil.

I remember the first time I heard about fish tacos. I was in college. Where I grew up in rural Kentucky, there was only one kind of taco: hard shell with ground beef and seasoning from a little packet.
 
I couldn’t comprehend the idea of fish + taco.
 
But things change. We grow and evolve. And as we do, so does our idea of a perfect taco.
 
These days, I’ve seriously honed in on what’s necessary for me personally in a taco. Soft shell….mayo….fresh avocado…..crunchy cabbage + cilantro garnish. The filling is negotiable, as long as it’s healthy.  Fish or vegetables, please.
 
Going out for tacos these days usually means a compromise of my mostly grain free diet.  A corn tortilla here and there is a sacrifice I am able to make for the cause.

Life is short. Tacos are important.
 
But at home, there is no need for compromise of any kind.  A beautiful little family food business in Austin Texas has taken care of that. Siete Family Foods Almond Flour Tortillas are as close to regular flour tortillas as is possible. They perform beautifully warmed up until they’re just pliable or beyond, if you like, to crispy in a cast iron skillet (or any kind really.)
 
They are also grain free + gluten free + dairy free + soy free.  

These tortillas have truly been a savior for me; so you will no doubt see them here again. I use them for breakfast with scrambled eggs and lunch for a sandwich wrap. So many possibilities!  I wish there were more compassionate food companies like Siete around. Check out their family story and other products here. 

Cooking in Parchment
If you don't eat shrimp, you can make this same dish with any kind of fish, chicken or cubed vegetables. Whatever filling you choose for your tacos, you can follow the same directions for cooking in parchment paper. Cooking in parchment is brilliant and has become my default method for cooking protein. It's a forgiving technique, saving you from any tendency to overcook. The food steams in its juices and whatever citrus is enclosed. (Some kind of citrus should always be included.) And clean up is easy. 

Avocado Cumin Aioli
The art of pampering an avocado to peak ripeness is deserving of a dedicated blog post. ​(Click here.) And here, this is where you will want one that is ripe with bright neon green flesh, with no internal brown spots. Without the cumin and lime zest, this recipe is really a foundational mayonnaise substitute that can be transformed into all kinds of flavored sauces. If you love heat, consider adding a few drops of Sriracha or cayenne powder. Or pulse some cilantro leaves in for a cilantro aioli sauce. The possibilities are endless.

Be sure to cover the avocado aioli at the surface with plastic wrap. This will preserve the color of avocado a bit longer than without; although admittedly this is not a very wide window of time either way. You will want to eat it within 24 hours and it will deepen in color, but should still taste fresh. 

Brussels sprouts + leeks
Cabbage is my favorite garnish for tacos.  Brussels sprouts are tiny cabbages. You can substitute thinly shredded cabbage instead. It's not hard to find pre-prepped cabbage mix for coleslaw these days. I buy them often. 

Leeks are always paired with cabbage in my kitchen. I love their similar texture and color. Any leftovers Brussels + leeks can be stir-fried for a quick side dish.

____________________________________________________
​
The Recipe
Shrimp Tacos + Avocado Cumin Aioli + Brussels sprout slaw + Almond Flour Tortillas
Serves 2 to 4 people

Taco Ingredients
1 pound medium size wild caught shrimp, uncooked and thawed
4 Siete Almond Flour Tortillas or tortilla of your choice
Olive oil pan spray
2 Limes
½ teaspoon Sea Salt
1 teaspoon Black Pepper

½ pound Brussels Sprouts or half head of cabbage or pre-sliced coleslaw mix
½ large leek
Handful cilantro leaves
Parchment paper
Avocado Cumin Aioli (recipe below)

Shrimp Baked in Parchment
1. Preheat the oven to 425. 
2. Line a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Spray with olive oil.
3. Lay the thawed shrimp in the middle of the parchment paper.
4. Slice one lime thinly and layer on top of the shrimp.
5. Season with sea salt and pepper.
6. Fold the long side of the parchment towards the middle and then tuck the ends under so the shrimp and limes are snug inside the parchment.
7. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, make the Avocado Cumin Mayo.

Avocado Cumin Aioli
1 ripe avocado
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon raw organic agave or honey
Juice of 1 small or ½ large lemon
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon mustard powder
Zest of one lime (reserve the limes)
¼ teaspoon cumin

Process all ingredients together in a food processor into a smooth paste.
Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.

Brussels + Leeks Slaw
Cut the stems off the Brussels sprouts and thinly slice horizontally.
Thinly slice the leeks to match the size of the Brussels sprouts (or cabbage).
Toss them together.

​Assembly
Heat up a heavy duty saute pan and spray lightly with olive oil. One at a time, toast the tortillas as soft or crispy as you like.

​Assemble the tacos with the shrimp, Avocado Cumin Aioli, Brussels sprouts + leeks slaw and avocado slices. Garnish with cilantro leaves and fresh lime juice.

​Click below for a printable version of the recipe: