Excerpted from The Diaspora Spice Co. Cookbook. These are just a few of the deeply personal recipes that tell the story of our farm partners, their kitchens, and the spices they grow. Order your copy here!
Soybeans are such a deeply important ingredient across Manipur’s many regional and tribal food cultures, they’re most commonly fermented into a condiment similar to Japanese natto that is nutty, pungent, and a great source of year-round umami and good microbes.
Zeino, our dear friend and sourcing partner for Manipuri wild foraged and indigenous spices has fond memories of drinking her mom’s homemade roasted soybean milk as a kid (YUM!), and came up with a soybean tomato salad as an easy way to add more protein to her diet that this recipe was the original inspiration for. We chose to sub in edamame and watercress in place of soybeans and pennywort, just in the name of what’s more easily available in the US — and, so you’re not having to spend time soaking and cooking dried soybeans.
The resulting salad is so fresh and bright, and pairs very well with the spicy, rich Manipuri pork Hoksa.
