White Bean Walnut Spread with Roasted Tomato Tea Toast

I was immediately intrigued by the new book Steeped. I love tea. I drink tea often and have cooked and baked with tea as well, and now here was a book full of “Recipes Infused with Tea.” I received a review copy. What I quickly realized as I started reading the book is that not only is it full of clever uses of tea in all kinds of different dishes, it’s also full of just really delicious-sounding food. The Green Tea Noodles in Asparagus Sauce with Goat Cheese Pearls has a couple of genius things happening in the same recipe. The fresh pasta is made with matcha green tea powder mixed with the spelt and all-purpose flours. And, the dish is served with goat cheese pearls made by rolling little pieces of goat cheese between your palms. They make the prettiest garnish. The Iced Tea Sugar Cookies are made with five options for glazes, and each glaze is made with a different type of tea. For instance, the Mojito Glaze calls for Moroccan mint green tea and lime zest, and the Rooibos Carrot Glaze has rooibos tisane and finely grated carrot. I first learned about tea leaf salads when I read the book Burma, and this book includes a fabulous, big, composed, California-version of a tea leaf salad with chopped avocado, jalapeno, and sunflower seeds. There are also really lovely pairings like the Jasmine Tea Whipped Cream with Shortcakes topped with Canteloupe. I can already imagine how good sweet, ripe cantaloupe will be with the flavor of jasmine tea. This is definitely so much more than a darling, little book about tea. First, I had to try the Roasted Tomato Tea Toasts and experiment with the smoky flavor from lapsang souchong tea. 

You begin by grinding lapsang souchong tea with coarse salt in a spice grinder. It results in a smoky-flavored salt accented with the floral qualities of the tea. This salt was sprinkled on tomato slices before they were roasted. I had just received some tomatoes from our CSA, and I bought some extras at the farmers’ market. This happened two weeks ago, and at that point, our local tomatoes were of the greenhouse variety. They were good candidates for roasting to concentrate their flavors. While the tomato slices roasted, white beans, toasted walnuts, minced garlic, more ground lapsang souchong tea, and some of the tea salt were pureed together in the food processor. Olive oil was drizzled in until the puree was smooth. Last, olive bread was sliced and toasted. I cut the bread to about the size of each slice of tomato. The bread was topped with the white bean puree, then a slice of tomato, and chopped chives. 

These tea toasts were so simple to prepare, and the result was a delightful and unique flavor experience. The lapsang souchong salt is just smoky enough without being overbearing as some smoked salts can be. It combined perfectly with the white bean and walnut spread, and the roasted tomatoes on top. I love now having the idea of this tea and this salt for adding a hint of smokiness in my bag of tricks, and I look forward to using tea in even more new and different ways. 

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