Easter Mezze

Easter breakfast — or Easter in general — in Polish tradition is a grand, fatty feast that clogs the arteries and makes the liver weep.
 This is somewhat understandable and rooted in historical context. Easter comes after Lent, winter, and the early spring hunger gap, when, even just a hundred years ago, there wasn’t much food to eat.
 Today, we no longer face such food shortages, and the rationale behind the kind of fasting still upheld by Christian churches, based on Hippocratic humoral dietetics, is also obsolete. It’s a bit like still insisting the Sun revolves around the Earth.

We can still honor the tradition, but do it differently — not necessarily more modestly (though it’s definitely wise not to overdo it or waste food), but in a healthier and, in my opinion, more interesting way than repeating the same dishes year after year.

In that spirit, I created a modest Easter mezze set inspired by traditional products and flavors:
 Tomatoes stuffed with chickpea paste and guacamole.
 It happens to be wild garlic season, and here in Niedersachsen, it’s a regional specialty. I’ve fallen in love with it, so I used a lot of it.

The chickpea paste includes black salt (Kala Namak), which gives it that eggy flavor — like a typical “eggless” paste — but! with wild garlic and wasabi (recipe below).
 Guacamole, this version is slightly different, with dried red currants and lots of wild garlic. It includes lime juice and salt, but no chili or red onion.

Fried “Fakemeat.”
 Mine is made with sliced soy cutlets and yuba fried in almond oil, heavily seasoned with smoked paprika, cumin, juniper, and ground coriander seeds. I add a bit of balsamic cream and fry it until Maillard reactions kick in and the sugars caramelize.

A mayo-yogurt sauce with wasabi paste and spicy yuzu paste.

Recipe for the chickpea paste:

INGREDIENTS:

• 100 g cooked or canned chickpeas
• 50 g mayonnaise
• 5 g of wasabi paste
• 1/3–1/4 tsp turmeric
• 10 g fresh wild garlic
• 5 g nutritional yeast flakes
• Black salt (Kala Namak), to taste

METHOD:
 Mash or blend the chickpeas thoroughly. Finely chop the wild garlic. Mix all ingredients together well and let sit for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.