What the hey? Yup. Green tea and mizuna in your hummus. Okay, it’s probably more appropriate to call this a chickpea spread rather than hummus since there isn’t any garlic nor any tahini. Instead it has a beautiful jade hue, delicate flavour and a tiny bit of bite from the mizuna. Amazing as a dip, awesome as a sandwich spread and as featured here, a fine filling for your next nori roll.

Yield: 1 generous cup of dip; 4 nori sheets worth of roll

What you need for the dip/spread/hummus:

• 1 cup cooked chickpeas (see note below if you have trouble digesting chickpeas!)
• 1 loosely packed cup of coarsely chopped mizuna (or other mustard greens of your choice)
• 1-1/2 tablespoons pumpkin seed butter
• 3 tablespoons strong brewed sencha tea (optional, you could use water, but try it with tea)
• 2 to 4 teaspoons of lemon juice (or rice vinegar, or lime juice)
• a pinch or two of nutritional yeast (optional, and really – no more than a pinch)
• salt

What you need for the rolls:

• 4 sheets toasted nori
• 2/3 cup finely grated carrot
• a small coin-sized piece of ginger, finely grated and mixed with the carrot
• a pinch of salt (over the ginger and carrot and mixed in so they release a bit of their moisture)
• 2 cups shredded, cooked green or red cabbage leaves (steamed or sautéed)
• 1 recipe Mizuna & Green Tea hummus

What you do for the dip:

1. Place the chickpeas, pumpkin seed butter, lemon juice, green tea and nutritional yeast (if using) in the work bowl of a mini-foodprocessor. Blend until smooth. Add salt to desired level. Blend again. Add the mizuna and pulse to mostly break it up and in, but leaving some pretty darker green flecks throughout. Taste again and adjust the lemon-salt balance as desired. (A pinch of wasabi might be a desired addition for some!)
2. Serve or move on to the roll recipe next.

What you do for the rolls:

1. So just to let you know, I won’t go into the details of how to actually roll and cut a maki here. However, I will point you to a couple of resources that go through the process in detail and with more skill than I ever could. The tutorials here and here are pretty clear. We’ll be doing the same thing, but without the fish and without the rice.
2. Lay down one sheet of the nori. Spread it with a quarter of the dip/spread/hummus in a thick layer. Add a quarter of the carrot-ginger mixture over it and then 1/2 cup of the cooked shredded cabbage.
3. Roll. Be gentle, with no rice and a paste as the filling, the nori will want to tear if not handled carefully.
4. Set the first roll aside and repeat the process with the three remaining sheets.
5. Slice each roll carefully with a very sharp knife.
6. Enjoy!

Note on the digestion of chickpeas:

If you’re like me and you love chickpeas, but they don’t necessarily love you back – there’s a few strategies you can use to make them more digestible. I usually put them all together and when I do, it’s surprisingly successful:

• Don’t eat chickpeas more than once or twice a week – and not two days in a row…
• Sprout your chickpeas before cooking and eating. Or if you have no time to sprout, then at least a 12 hour soak and change the soak water once or twice during the process;
• Hard-boil the chickpeas in lots of fresh water to cover before pressure cooking and remove the scum that rises to the top during the process;
• Pressure cook them for an hour (really, an hour) with a few bay leaves;
• Peel them after cooking and before use in a dip or dish (lengthy, time-consuming, boring – but your digestive tract will thank you if chickpeas give you massive gas).

Variation:

• Try making this dip using edamame instead of chickpeas for a more assertive neon-green