My quest for varied and nutritious recipes that meet Martin’s dietary requirements has led me to some cookbooks thick with dust on my kitchen shelves. I adapted this dish from The Vegetarian Resource Group‘s Vegan Handbook, a book I acquired a decade or so ago and hardly have cracked since. I made the soup for dinner tonight. It met the Martin approval test.

1/2 cup navy beans, soaked overnight
1 cup almond flour
2 parsnips, peeled and diced
1/4-1/2 cup minced cilantro
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt, kelp flakes, or dried celery
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Cook the beans for an hour in six cups water. (I also tossed in a kombu frond, which I removed at the end of the hour.) Then add the rest of the ingredients except for the lemon juice and cook another half-hour, until the beans are cooked thoroughly. Use an immersion blender or a food processor to purée the soup. Add the lemon juice right before serving.

With the beans and almonds, this is like a tasty protein blast. Adding plenty of cilantro boosts mitochondrial processing.