I don’t really know how I have the nerve to call this salad “Hoppin’ John” since it contains no bacon, no black-eyed peas, and not even any real rice, BUT it kind of looks like it and my version is based on this vegan version of the dish from PCRM.

The PCRM version is great–in fact, I used to make it by the bucket for Em before she moved to Dublin. However, I made some changes to the healthy PCRM version simply because I prefer turtle beans to black-eyed peas and I thought it could be a great vehicle for raw cauliflower rice.

Vegan Hoppin’ John Salad

Ingredients

• 2 cans  black turtle beans, drained
• 4 cups raw cauliflower rice
• 1/4 cup green onions, finely sliced
• 1 cup white onion, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 4 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed & chopped
• 1 tsp BTB paste

Directions

Make the cauliflower rice: chop half a cauliflower into florettes and pulse it in the food processor for three or four pulses (in small batches of about two cups per batch) until it’s the size of rice. UPDATE: In future, either pan fry or bake the cauliflower rice. The raw stuff is FAR too…ahem…gassy.

Combine beans, cauliflower rice, green onions, onions, celery, tomato, and parsley in a mixing bowl. In a small bowl, mix together lime juice, salt, BTB paste and garlic and pour over the salad. Toss gently. Chill 1 to 2 hours if time permits.

It’s very good–super fresh tasting. I actually think I like it better than the brown rice version because the cauliflower rice doesn’t ever get mushy (or stale-tasting after a couple of days in the fridge).

Aquafaba Update:

Because I ended up with some aquafaba from the canned turtle beans, I decided to continue to experiment. It’s much easier to work with smaller amounts (the four cups I was working with yesterday was INSANE).

The first can yielded a mere 1/4 cup of aquafaba, so I mixed it with 1/4 tsp. of cream of tartar.

It was pretty disgusting looking because they beans are black, but then this happened after about five minutes of beating on high:

The picture doesn’t do the colour justice–it’s a beautiful light mauve!!! The texture is amazing–light and fluffy–and it has absolutely no taste.

I had been thinking that folding whipped aquafaba into some freshly made hummus would produce a very creamy texture, so that’s what I tried:

The result is very nice and smooth indeed:

The next can produced three times as much, so I increased the cream of tartar to 1/2 tsp. and whipped it on high for five minutes. Again, it turned out lovely and fluffy (and produced about three cups of fluff!!). It definitely has a bit of a beany taste, however, so I’ll watch what I add it to. Oddly, both brands of beans were the same, so I’m not sure how they produced aquafaba that differs in both yield and flavour! I’ve stored it in the fridge to monitor how it reacts over time.

I’m so intrigued by the possibilities of this stuff!!

And as I was looking through some of the pictures of food I’ve posted on this blog, I said to James, “Y’know….almost everything I make kind of looks like vomit,” to which he replied, “Not always. Sometimes it looks like a turd.” HA!