Mill What? 'Blackeyes Beans?' Prickly Huh?

Easter brunch has always been one of my favorite meals. My whole extended family gets together for a feast. There's always a ham, some kind of yummy egg dish, a scrumptious french toast casserole (that I look forward to all year) and lots of desserts. There are also some veggies dishes, salads, and don't forget the mimosas! But it's the non-vegan dishes that are on my mind as I think about how this meal is going to go down this year.

It's only been about two and a half months since I decided to cut out meat and dairy and I want to give it a fair shot before I start sneaking bites of ham or justifying cake just because it's shaped like a bunny and my mom's been making it for as long as I can remember.

So, I've decided to bring a few vegan dishes to show my family how delicious a vegan diet can be (and to make sure there is something there I can eat!) I'm thinking of making a tofu scramble and some kind of grain and veggie salad (inspired by this one). A dessert would be fun too, but we'll see if I have time for all of that.

I'm confident I can whip up the tofu scramble pretty easily, but wanted to do a little experimenting on the salad. So, today I made a millet and black eyed peas salad with basil and prickly pears. It sounds totally weird, but it turned out really delicious!

I had never heard of millet until recently when I saw a recipe for it in the Kind Diet book. Shortly after, I found it in the bulk bins at Sprouts. I did a search and came up with this recipe on the the Whole Foods website for Tomato, Basil and Millet Salad. I had all of the ingredients except tomatoes.

This was also my first time making black eyed peas. I had recently picked some up at the Asian market, and got a kick out of the package which said "Blackeyes Bean." Too funny!

I was just about to text Pat and ask him to bring home some tomatoes when I got the idea to use the prickly pears my dad and I had picked from the cactus in my sister's yard last weekend. The flesh is after all pretty similar to the texture of a peeled tomato.

Millet and "Blackeyes Bean" Salad with Basil and Prickly Pears
2 cups cooked black-eyed peas
1 cup uncooked millet, rinsed and drained
3 cups vegetable broth
1 cup chopped green onions
1/3 cup thinly sliced basil
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
5 prickly pears, peeled, diced, seeds discarded

The Whole Foods recipe called for a can of black eyed peas, but mine were dry, so I started by cooking those. I learned that they cook much faster than other beans and you don't have to presoak them - bonus!

Then I followed the next part of the instructions pretty closely:

Toast the millet in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant and just golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and carefully add broth. Return to heat and bring to a boil over medium high heat then reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed and millet is tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Transfer millet to a large bowl, fluff with a fork and set aside to let cool.

Add black-eyed peas, green onions and basil to millet, toss gently and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, then pour dressing over millet mixture and toss to coat.

For the prickly pears, I just scrubbed off the needles, scooped out and got rid of the hard seeds and then scooped out and diced the fleshy part. It added a really nice subtle sweetness.

Who knew so many weird things tossed together could be so good! It is the perfect springtime dish with the bright colors and flavors. You could do something like this with quinoa, cous cous or brown rice and any beans or veggies.

I will definitely make something like this for next weekend! Now, what could I do for dessert so I don't give into the evil bunny cake... :)