Green pea-Farotto with Shiitake and Chai sauce

Peas and mushrooms are both fantastic ingredients and they com- plement each other perfectly in this dish. Not just highly versatile in cooking, peas are also rich in plant-based protein. And while mushrooms have been valued for their medicinal properties throughout history, it’s their powerful umami flavour that is the winning quality in a plant-based diet.

Recipe from Feasts of Veg by Nina Olsson

These mushrooms are fried with half a teaspoon of liquid smoke, an ingredient used in gastronomic cooking. Liquid smoke is available in speciality shops for cooking and online. Teas are essentially aromatic herbs and flowers and, when used in cooking, they add a beautiful and subtle flavour. Here, a tea (I use chai from on of the brands Pukka or Yogi-tea) is used to complement the savoury shiitake and farotto. You can also make the sauce with Earl Grey or Lapsang Souchang, the latter adds an extra smoky flavour to the sauce.

Serves 4

To make the pea farotto, put the green peas in a blender with 100ml of the stock and mix to a coarse, crumbly texture, or mash together with a fork in a bowl. Set aside. Heat a saucepan to a medium-high heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil or a little butter and fry the garlic for a few seconds. Add the farro and fry, stirring, for 1–2 minutes. Stir in the wine and the remainder of the vegetable stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 35–40 minutes, stirring frequently. Taste to see if the farro is tender, and if not, cook for a little longer. Add the pea purée, olive oil and Parmesan or rawmesan and stir to mix, then season to taste with salt and pepper.

Turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid, then reheat just before serving.Heat a frying pan to a medium-high heat. Add the ghee or olive oil and liquid smoke and fry the mushrooms for 2 minutes without stirring. Then fry, stirring, for a further 2–3 minutes or until the excess moisture has evaporated. Drizzle with the toasted sesame oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove the mushrooms and quickly pour the chai into the pan, whisking to combine the remaining aromas of the mushrooms with the tea. Add the agave syrup and whisk it into the sauce.

Taste and adjust with salt and pepper. Serve the pea farrotto topped with the mushrooms and a drizzle of the chai sauce. You can top with grated cheese or rawmesan, if you like.

Serves 4
Pea farrotto:
100g peas, fresh or frozen
600ml vegetable stock
olive oil or butter o ghee, for frying
3 garlic cloves, minced
220g semi-pearled farro
300ml white wine
50ml olive oil
70g grated hard cheese, or rawmesan (plus extra to serve)
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Smokey shiitake:
½ teaspoon liquid smoke
300g shiitake mushrooms (or use oyster mushrooms or portobello), sliced
1 tablespoon ghee or olive oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Chai Sauce:
200 ml chai ( I use Chai from Pukka or Yogi-tea)
½ tsp agave syrup or honey salt and pepper, to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Vegan and gluten-free notes

VE Opt for olive oil instead of butter or ghee for frying and use rawmesan instead of dairy cheese. Be mindful with the fact that Parmesan like many other cheeses uses rennet so it cannot pass as a vegetarian choice.
GF Use brown rice or buckwheat instead of farro, adjust- ing the cooking times of the grains according to the packet instructions.