Zahav-Inspired Soy Bean Hummus-Style Dip

Hopefully, the name works. I'm happy for y'all to suggest alternatives. I'm not 100% comfortable calling this a hummus, though, because chickpeas aren't involved at all, so...

I'm a really big fan of Zahav's hummus. I love the simplicity of making the basic tehina sauce while dried chickpeas, which have been soaked overnight (I usually soak them for 12 hours) are simmering for 1+ hours.

Of course I made a couple small changes... using Kenji's recipe for smooth, creamy hummus over on Serious Eats, I simmered my chickpeas for 2 hours, and added aromatics, as well. I didn't blend in the carrot with the chickpeas, though... I still blended the chickpeas by themselves. But I kept the stock, both in case it was needed while blending the chickpeas, and also for other uses. Also, those aromatics can be super useful in others things. Basically, I try to discard as little on the food side as possible, because everything can be useful elsewhere...

A little secret about me... I'm kind of excessive. So of course I decided to start making my own tahini for it, as well. So I started going to H-Mart for sesame seeds, and while there I found two really cool things: black sesame seeds and dried soy beans. And that made me ponder a question...

Could I make a soy bean dip in the spirit of the Zahav hummus, using black sesame tahini made with sesame oil rather than olive oil, that has a more Asian-American flair? It took surprisingly less experimenting than I expected, and this went very much towards a Japanese-American style, but I ended up with the following pretty neat recipe...

(I have a feeling that I'm gonna get some people who balk at a specific ingredient mentioned in the "stew" section... it is useful here and very worth it. It's also all natural, and perfectly safe in moderation [trust me, you already eat a ton of it every single day without realizing it, and that's true even if you grow your own produce and make your own food, because it's found naturally in so much of what we eat]. But, I still said it's optional. Just note that, if you skip it, the umami flavor will be a bit less... erm... there...)

Soy Bean Soak

Ingredients

• 4oz (~1/2 cup; ~113.4g) dried soy beans
• 3 cups (24oz; ~709.64 ml) water
• 1/2 tsp baking
• 1 tbsp (12g) Diamond kosher salt (if using a different salt, please weigh out 12g; or use slightly over 1/2 tbsp of Morton's kosher salt or slightly over 1 & 1/3 tsps table salt... if my ratios are correct; anyone feel free to correct me)

Directions

1. The night before you plan to make this, pour your dried soy beans, water, baking soda, and salt into a pot. Stir it all to help the salt and baking soda dissolve, cover, and let sit at room temperature for up to 12 hours.

Soy Bean "Stew"

Ingredients

• Rehydrated soy beans (should be around 8.4 oz or so)
• 3 cups water
• 0.5 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp (12g) Diamond kosher salt (if using a different salt, please weigh out 12g; or use slightly over 1/2 tbsp of Morton's kosher salt or slightly over 1 & 1/3 tsps table salt)
• 1 tsp hondashi granules
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (you can use regular, low sodium, homemade... doesn't really matter here; just use actual soy sauce... not fake stuff; you're already using soy beans)
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 0.5 tsp Aji No Moto MSG (optional; I know I know... but I promise you it's both safe and very much worth it)

Directions

1. Once the soak is finished, drain and rinse the soy beans in a colander. In the same pot you use to soak them, add more water, the baking soda, and the salt, as well as the hondashi, mirin, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and, if using, the Aji No Moto. Turn heat to high and stir to dissolve everything. Add the soy beans and bring to a boil.
2. As soon as it starts boiling, turn the heat down to medium low, or low, and simmer for 2 hours, or until the soy beans very soft and somewhat mushy.
3. While the soy beans are simmering, move on to the next part of all this... the tahini.

Black Sesame Tahini

Ingredients

• 8.4oz (~1.5 cups) black sesame seeds
• (4 tbsps) sesame oil

Directions

1. While your soy beans are simmering, heat your oven to 350*F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and pour the black sesame seeds onto it, spreading them out. Once the oven is at temp, toast the sesame seeds for 3 to 5 minutes or until the sesame seeds are fragrant, stirring and flipping after the first 3 minutes and checking them every minute thereafter until you're happy. Because you're using black sesame seeds, you are going to have to rely more on time and smell than on look. Some will start to look darker, but don't rely on that. Sesame seeds burn very easily, so be careful.
2. Once done, pour the hot sesame seeds into your blender (yes, blender; not food processor), put on the top, and blend starting with low speed and slowly raising the speed until the sesame seeds become a powder. You will most likely have to scrape down the sides. I was able to do this, carefully, while the blender was going. You can do that, but at your own discretion.
3. Start adding sesame oil, 1 tbsp at a time, and blend until you end up with a paste. It took me about 4 tbsps, although the tahini was a bit on the thinner side, however that worked for what I was going for. You may use less or more.
4. Pour the tahini into a bowl and clean your blender. You're gonna need it for the next part.

Basic Black Tahini Sauce

Ingredients

• The made tahini from above (about 1 cup)
• 11 garlic cloves (don't worry about peeling them)
• 3/8 cup lemon juice
• (6 tbsps) ice water

Directions

1. Now that your blender is clean, add the garlic and lemon juice and blend until you basically have a juice with a lot of pulp.
2. Let the mixture sit in the blender, covered, for 10 minutes so the garlic can mellow out.
3. Once the 10 minutes are up, strain the liquid into the bowl with the tahini using a fine-mesh strainer. Use a spoon to press as much juice out of the solids as possible. Discard the solids (or save to use for something else? IDK).
4. Whisk the garlic lemon juice into the tahini. Now, unlike white sesame tahini made with olive oil, this is not going to seize up in quite the same way. Remember, it's thinner to begin with. However, you still need that ice water. Add said ice water, 1 tbsp at a time, and whisk it in until you have a smooth, creamy sauce. I ended up using about 6 tbsps of ice water; but you may use less or more.
5. Set sauce aside to wait for the soy beans and clean the blender again. You're gonna need it one more time...

"Hummus"

Ingredients

• Now cooked soy beans
• (6 tbsps) "aquafaba" (the reserved cooking liquid)
• Prepared tahini sauce

Directions

1. At this point your soy beans should be pretty mushy. Once your two-hour timer goes off, check them. They're not going to be falling apart like chickpeas would at this point, but if you eat one, you should almost not have to really chew it. Like you could basically just use your tongue and feel almost no resistance. If that's not the case, feel free to keep simmering them (perhaps turn up the heat and/or add more baking soda 1/2 tsp at a time) until you're satisfied.
2. Once your soy beans are ready, drain them into another pot. DO NOT throw out the liquid yet.
3. Add the soy beans, hot, to the blender. Go ahead and try blending them. I had a problem where my blender wouldn't blend them by themselves, so I had to add the cooking liquid, 1 tbsp at a time (along with turning off the blender at each addition and stirring), until I had a smooth paste. It took about 6 tbsps for me, but you may use more or less depending on variables like just how mushy your soy beans are and how powerful your blender is.
4. Once you have a smooth paste, pour it into the bowl with your tahini sauce. Whisk together until fully incorporated. (You may now either discard the cooking liquid or keep it; it would make an incredible base for miso soup, honestly...)
5. Enjoy!

Note 1: I find that in any kind of dip like this, the flavor changes. When it's fresh and warm it tastes one way. when it's allowed to sit stored in the fridge overnight, the flavors meld and it tastes a little different. I personally enjoy it both fresh and after being stored in the fridge.

Note 2: I used yellow soy beans in this case because they were cheaper than black soy beans, and the H-Mart didn't have any dried green soy beans that I could see. You could easily use black soy beans or green soy beans, if you wanted to. It doesn't really matter, as long as you're using soy beans. If you for some reason decide to use the frozen edamame, you can skip the overnight soak (or maybe do an overnight thaw, instead), but I have no idea how that would turn out. (Maybe I'll try it to find out...)

Note 3: Yeah, I realize that this seems like a very salty dip. You could indeed cut down on the salt in several places (skip the kosher salt in the soak, stew, or both). As this recipe is built on my first attempt, I used the salt. You'll be surprised to learn, however, that the final product doesn't taste anywhere near as salty as you might expect it to. So it's possible that cutting down on the salt will change the flavor. In which case I recommend increasing the soy sauce and, if you're using it, the MSG, as well.

Note 4: Please please please experiment with this! I intend to. I also intend to experiment with other beans and styles, but sticking to the Zahav spirit. Like... could I do a Tex-Mex dip? What about an Italian-American Dip? What about a BBQ dip? What other beans can I use, and what kind of styles can I make them in, to create interesting bean dips? Of course I may have to completely change or do away with the tahini aspect in some cases... or maybe not... we'll see...

If you do experiment with this, maybe keep us updated here? I'd love to see what y'all do with it.

(I realize I missed a trick by not making a full-on miso soup to simmer the soy beans in, but a) there are apparently laws against boiling miso, and b) I didn't have any miso on hand.)

And here's what the finished product should look like. I know it looks weird, but I promise you that that color is all natural... it comes from using black sesame seeds...

https://imgur.com/a/j16DAl3

bon appetit