Wild Yeast

Notes from my kitchen, in which I bake bread and raise a few other matters

Edamame “Hummus” and Soy-Whole Wheat Pitas

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Remember when you were twelve and you broke your arm skateboarding? You had a cool cast that everyone signed, and you got to have your mom write out your homework, and within a month you were back out there on the skateboard, good as new. No big deal.

Osteoporosis isn’t like that. It’s a huge deal. It doesn’t take a major trauma to break osteoporotic bones, and fractures related to this devastating disease are a leading cause of hospitalization, disability, and even death. Did you know that an adult over age 50 who fractures a hip has a one in four chance of dying within one year?

While those most likely to suffer the effects of osteoporosis are women over age 50, the time to think about preventing it is now, no matter what your age and gender. Bone mass is largely acquired before the age of 20, but good health habits at any age will help. Don’t smoke. Do regular weight-bearing exercise. Get enough Vitamin D. And three words at the top of the list: Calcium, Calcium, Calcium! Many people just don’t get enough of this critical bone-forming mineral.

In recognition of National Osteoporosis Prevention Month and to promote awareness of the disease, Susan of Food Blogga is hosting Beautiful Bones. The task is to make a dish with one or more calcium-rich ingredients. I chose to give hummus and pita bread, a favorite around here, a calcium boost by making a few adaptations to my everyday recipes.

The calcium in the “hummus” comes from edamame (green soybeans, which have about twice the calcium of garbanzo beans), yogurt, and sesame seeds. Tahini, the traditional sesame ingredient in hummus, is made from hulled sesame seeds (at least the tahini in my pantry is), and while it does contain a fair amount of calcium, unhulled seeds contain about twice as much. Although the hulls also contain oxalic acid, which inhibits calcium absorption, I think there is a net calcium advantage to the unhulled seeds. Also, there is some evidence that heat reduces the effect of the oxalic acid, so I toasted the sesame seeds.

I modified this recipe for whole wheat pitas, keeping the whole wheat sponge but substituting soy flour for the whole wheat flour in the final dough. Soy flour contains about six times as much calcium as whole wheat flour. It contains no gluten, so in general it’s not a good choice for bread, but for a flatbread that’s not as critical.

The substitution was admittedly a shot in the dark, since I have never worked with soy flour before. The dough was quite sticky and I did incorporate some additional whole wheat flour during the kneading. I must say I found myself turned off by the smell of the dough. The words “raw” and “green” kept leaping to mind, and while I usually would not say these adjectives are bad things at all, in this case they were. Happily, the baked pitas tasted great. Their yellowish color was a tipoff that these were not your average wheat pitas, but otherwise you’d never have known.

Edamame “Hummus”

Yield: About 2.5 cups

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 450 g boiled shelled edamame (if boiling in their shells, you’ll need about 900 g of beans to yield 450 g of shelled beans, and about 15 minutes to shell them)
  • 130 g plain nonfat yogurt
  • 100 g sesame seeds (unhulled)
  • 28 g (2 T.) olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1/2 t. cumin
  • About 1 T. water

Method:

  1. In a skillet over medium-high heat, toast the sesame seeds until they begin to pop. Remove them to a plate and cool briefly.
  2. Place toasted sesame seeds in a mini food processor and process until finely ground.
  3. Place the ground seeds and all other ingredients except water into a blender or food processor. Process until pureed. Add water to thin to your desired consistency.

Soy-Whole Wheat Pitas

Yield: 8 pitas

Time:

  • Mix and ferment sponge: 1 hour
  • Mix final dough: 10 minutes
  • Ferment: 1.5 hours
  • Divide, rest, and roll out: 15 minutes
  • Bake: 2 – 3 minutes per batch of 1 – 3 pitas

Sponge ingredients:

  • 225 g whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat but regular is fine also)
  • 2.5 g (3/4 t.) instant yeast
  • 280 g lukewarm water

Final dough ingredients:

  • All of the sponge
  • 9 g salt (1.5 t. table salt)
  • 14 g (1 T.) olive oil
  • 185 g soy flour
  • Additional whole wheat flour, as needed

Method:

  1. Combine sponge ingredients in a medium bowl. Cover and let rest for one hour.
  2. Stir salt and olive oil into sponge.
  3. Add the soy flour and mix briefly to form a shaggy mass.
  4. Turn the dough and any loose soy flour out onto the counter. Knead to incorporate all of the flour. If the dough will not come together into anything resembling a ball, add a little more whole wheat flour. The dough will still be quite sticky.
  5. Continue kneading for 8 – 10 minutes until the dough is smooth.
  6. Place the dough back in the bowl. Cover and ferment 1.5 hours or until almost doubled in volume.
  7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with stone, to 450F.
  8. Turn the dough out onto the counter. Divide it into 8 equal portions and shape each into a ball. Cover with a cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.
  9. On a floured counter, roll each ball into a disc about 7 inches in diameter. They will be very thin; you can roll them thicker if you prefer. Roll the first two or three, and then more as the first batch is baking.
  10. Using a peel lightly sprinkled with semolina, transfer two or three pitas to the baking stone. (If you don’t have a peel, place the pitas on parchment paper and slide the parchment paper onto the stone.) Bake for 3 – 4 minutes, until fully puffed with a few browned spots. Don’t overbake or the pitas will be dry. (If a few don’t puff, they’ll still be delicious.)
  11. Repeat with the remaining pitas. As they come out of the oven, wrap them in a towel to keep them warm.

CommentsLeave a comment

  1. Great idea! I’ve seen Edamame Hummus on a few menus but never tried it. My wife is very much into adding calcium to her diet, so we’ll give it a try. I think I’ll have to add some heat to the basic recipe, hope you don’t mind.

    I always make my pitas on the stove top, but I doubt that soy flour will change too much.

    You always have something good for us to try, thanks.

    Dave

  3. Hi Susan,

    I can’t thank you enough for providing such important information about osteoporosis. The statistic about hip fractures is shocking, isn’t it?

    As for the recipe, it’s just wonderful. I’m a big edamame and hummus fan, so the idea of combining them sings to me. Thanks for a light, calcium-packed recipe that I’m sure everyone is going to love.

    Cheers,
    Susan

  4. Chock full of calcium. Nice variation to the hummus.
    I make my chapathis by adding a bit of soy flour to the whole wheat flour while making the dough.

  5. Wow, it’s edamame hummus week or something!

    I tried the Summer Fresh salads edamame hummus for the first time and loved it! My hubby is allergic to chick peas so a version made from edamame is going to be useful for me.

    Thanks for sharing your recipe. I just might give a whirl tomorrow since I have edamame in the freezer.

  8. Our local BD’s Mongolian BBQ restaurants have Edamame “Hummus” on the menu and I ordered it last time I was there.

    To be nice I’ll just say I’ll stick to chick-peas.

  11. Thanks very much for this recipe. Even though I’m ill-equipped (no scale or baking stone), they turned out very good. I sprayed them with a bit of olive oil and sprinkled on some ‘zaatar’ spice (thyme, sesame seeds and misc.) to make ‘manakish’, then rolled them up with some grilled chicken and vegetables.

    Almost as good as the Lebanese restaurant in Montreal that kept me fed as a student!

  13. A protip when baking pita bread; Roll them out on one side only, then flip the downside up when you throw them into the oven!

  14. Hi, I see that in USA you often mention using instant yeast… what is it exactly? is it died wild yeast, is it yeast from beer or is it the instant yeast that we use mainly for baking cakes in Europe, the white powder that some packages comes already mixed with flour?
    I can’t understand because if this is the only instant yeast I know and in Europe we don’t use it to bake bread…

    can you help me? 🙂

    thanks, Diana (Lugano, Switzerland)

  16. I am a huge fan of edamame and a huge fan of hummus. It would be interesting to try this recipe!I also would like to add that to be appropriate perhaps this dish should be called edamame “dip” it is not necessarily hummus, because the word hummus comes from Arabic: ????? which literally means ‘chickpeas.’ It just has the physical attributes of hummus but altogether, it doesn’t consist of chickpeas and authentic tahini sauce. I like the idea of mixing two culturally distinct ingredients but food is a serious matter when it comes to preparation.

    I hope I do not sound rude or offensive, if I do I apologize.

    thanks!
    -a

  18. Hi Susan,

    Another possibly offensive comment here, although I sincerely do not mean it to be! I just would like to offer an alternative opinion on the merits of soy, and specifically as how it relates to osteoporosis:

    http://westonaprice.org/soy/soy-osteoporosis.html

    Even if I don’t agree with the premise of replacing wheat and chickpeas with soy, I do love your site! You have so many wonderful recipes that I have either used as-is or converted to whole-wheat sourdough. Thank you so much!

    –Bella

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