Lentil & Mushroom Stew with Millet Dumplings

Upside-down Pear & Ricotta Cake

Fava Bean Umami Paste - Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

Fava Bean Umami Paste

Name: Fava Bean Umami Paste
Brand: Hodmedod's Whole Foods
SKU: A-NMFU/175G
Price: 3.49 GBP
Availability: InStock

Size - buy more & save

swatch-175g-jar

175g jar £3.49

swatch-1kg-tub-save-20

1kg tub - SAVE 20% £15.99

swatch-20kg-tub-save-30

20kg tub - SAVE 30% £189.99

Free UK delivery on all orders over £50

A purée of fermented beans full of rich umami flavour.

Our Fava Bean Umami Paste is unpasteurised and will continue to naturally ferment. On occasion, especially in warm conditions, it can get quite lively and bubble out of its jar. This doesn’t affect the quality of the product but we recommend storing in the fridge to slow down the fermentation and avoid any spillage.

Similar to a Japanese miso but made with British-grown fava beans, our fermented Fava Bean Umami Paste is packed with deep rich umami flavour with subtle notes of sherry.

Awarded two stars in the 2018 and 2019 Great Taste Awards, here are a few of the judges' comments:

"We love the umami depth of flavour, its complexity and persistence."

"Deep, satisfying umami flavours that burst with fizzy fermentation, complex soy like flavour with a natural sweetness that is really harmonious and delicious."

"A fabulously aromatic miso paste, how brilliant that this is made from British-grown fava beans."

"Brilliant in a variety of dishes and genuinely versatile."

"A brilliant fridge staple."

What are fava beans? Find out here...

Cooking
Ingredients
Nutrition

Add to stir fries, stews, soups, dressings, stocks and more for umami depth and fruity, sherry flavour. We love it spread on toast too!

Cooking instructions

Add about half a teaspoon per serving to almost any dish for added depth of flavour.

Suitable for vegans.
Ingredients

Fava Beans, Water, Salt, Live Cultures*
*Lactobacillus delbrueckii, Aspergillus sojae, Zygosaccharomyces rouxii

Allergy information

No allergens

To store

Keep refrigerated.

This is an unpasteurised product and will continue to naturally ferment, especially in warmer temperatures. This doesn't affect the quality but can sometimes cause leakage from the jar.

Production

Our Fava Umami Paste is fermented in the same way as many soya bean ferments used for miso, black beans, soy sauce or tamari, but using fava beans instead of soy beans. It's made with just fava beans, water and salt, fermented with a live culture of Lactobacillus delbrueckii, Aspergillus sojae and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii.

Packaging

175g packs are in recyclable glass jars with metal lids.
Typical values Per 100g

Energy 432kJ (103kcal)

Fat 0.5g

of which saturates 0.1g

Carbohydrate 13.0g

of which sugars 2.1g

Fibre 5.8g

Protein 8.6g

Salt 9.5g

Category: Fava Beans , Fava Umami Paste , Ferment

Summer Bean Salad with Umami Dressing

Lentil & Mushroom Stew with Millet Dumplings

Upside-down Pear & Ricotta Cake

Flamingo Peas

View All >

Naked Flamingo Peas, Organic

Split Flamingo Peas - Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

Naked Flamingo Peas, Organic

The organic flamingo has landed! We're...

From £2.99 GBP

Whole Flamingo Peas, Organic

Whole Flamingo Peas - Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains

Whole Flamingo Peas, Organic

The organic flamingo has landed! We're...

From £2.69 GBP

Autumn Pulse & Grain Bundle

Pulses and grains make superb summer...

From £27.99 GBP

The Seed Detective Bundle

Buy our bundle of Adam Alexander's...

From £29.99 GBP

Grist Bundle

Buy our bundle of Abra Berens'...

From £44.99 GBP

Hodmedod's Pulse Club - April Selection

Join our club to try our...

From £31.00 GBP

Wholemeal Sourdough Selection

Order freshly baked bread for dispatch...

From £20.95 GBP

Fava Bean Umami Paste

A purée of fermented beans full...

From £3.49 GBP

Olive Green Lentils

Tasty, versatile and easy to cook,...

From £4.49 GBP

Mix #1 - Broth

7 grains & pulses including Olive...

From £2.19 GBP

Recipes using Fava Bean Umami Paste

Summer Bean Salad with Umami Dressing

View Full Recipe

A summer salad with plenty of ooomph provided by the fabulous depth of the Fava Umami Paste used for the dressing. This is a great dish to prepare ahead; unlike most salads it gets better after a few hours.

Serve alongside roasted tomatoes topped with garlic breadcrumbs for a perfect vegan meal or as a simple side with roast chicken or ham.

Try this dressing in winter time with a red cabbage, carrot, beetroot, orange and Carlin Pea slaw.

This recipe is from Jenny Chandler, author of the superb Pulse cookbook and United Nations Special Ambassador for The Year of Pulses in 2016!

4 as a side dish

Ingredients

Umami Dressing

75ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and cut in half
1-2 tbsp Sherry Vinegar
½ tbsp Maple Syrup
½ tbsp Fava Umami Paste
A good grind of Black Pepper

The Salad

300g Cooked Whole Fava Beans
200g French Beans, trimmed of stalks
200g Runner Beans, de-strung and sliced
200g Podded Fresh Peas (or frozen)
200g Podded Fresh Broad Beans (or frozen)
Handful of Parsley
Handful of Mint

Method

Warm the olive oil and garlic in a small saucepan until you begin to smell the garlic (the idea is to infuse the oil rather than fry the garlic).
Remove the garlic, chop finely and spoon into a jar with a tightly fitting lid. Add the oil along with the remaining dressing ingredients, shake to bring everything together. Taste, you may like to tinker around with the balance, add a little salt if you like but the Umami paste brings so much salty, savoury depth that I doubt you will need it.
Warm the pulses in their cooking juices or any liquid from the tin, drain and then pour over the umami dressing. The warmed pulses will sup up the flavours beautifully.
Now blanch or steam your green veg’, just until tender and then plunge into cold water to keep the vibrant colour. If you are using frozen peas or beans they will need less than a minute in boiling water from frozen
It really is worth double-podding your broad beans to reveal the dazzlingly bright, sweet flesh within.
Chop the mint and parsley roughly.
Mix the greens carefully with the dressed beans and herbs (keeping a few leaves back to garnish the salad with just before serving)
And of course………… you could add sun blush tomatoes, radishes, asparagus, new potatoes, quinoa, pearled spelt or any other bits you feel like.

Lentil & Mushroom Stew with Millet Dumplings

View Full Recipe

Lentils are a great addition to any stew, combining here with the mushrooms to add a satisfying texture and peppery flavour, enriched by crème fraiche. Amy uses millet flour to give the dumplings a short, almost scone-like texture.

This recipe is heavy on the dill, an underappreciated herb in Britain, but if you've not a fan you can swap it out for basil or parsley.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the Stew

2 Carrot, finely chopped
2 Sticks of Celery, finely chopped
1 Onion, finely chopped
400g Mixed Mushrooms, sliced
300g Olive Green Lentils
5 Cloves of Garlic, sliced
1 tbsp Paprika
2 tsp Umami Paste
1lt Stock, of your choice
150g Crème Fraiche
Handful of Fresh Dill, roughly chopped
1 Lemon, to serve
Salt and Pepper, to taste

For the Dumplings

200g Millet Flour
2tbsp Oil
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
150ml Milk
25g Cheddar Cheese, grated
2 tbsp Fresh Dill, roughly chopped
¼ tsp Salt

Method

Set a large oven proof pan or skillet over a high heat and fry the mushrooms in the dry pan until reduced and starting to colour. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and set aside.
Add a generous amount of oil to the pan, along with the carrot, celery, onion and garlic. Fry on a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes until very soft and golden.
Return the mushrooms to the pan, with the paprika, stock and umami paste and simmer with the lid on for 15 to 20 minutes or until the lentils are mostly cooked through.
Meanwhile combine all your dumpling ingredients and bring together into a dough.
Heat your oven to 180C.
Stir in the crème fraiche and a small handful of dill (leaving some for garnish) through the stew, check the seasoning.
Ball the dough into 6 to 8 dumplings and gently add to the stew.
Cover the pan with a lid and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Uncover for a further 5 minutes to crisp the top of the dumplings (optional).
Serve with a garnish of dill and a squeeze of lemon.

Upside-down Pear & Ricotta Cake

View Full Recipe

This show-stopping cake from Tereza Pospíšilová combines quinoa, fava bean and almond flours to create a rich moist cake topped with spiced glazed pears.

The combination of quinoa and fava bean flour as well as ricotta makes this cake especially high in protein. Tereza's recipes are always lower in sugar than traditional cakes, allowing the flavours from the fruit, spices and flour to shine. We also love her creative use of fermented fava bean paste to add an unexpected kick of salty umami.

Ingredients

For the Pears and Syrup

5 to 6 ripe (but still firm) Pears
70g Lightly Salted Butter
60g Toasted Pecans (broken down into quarters)
2 tbsp Stem Ginger Juice
2 Tonka Beans, finely shaved
1 Vanilla Pod (will be reused in making batter)
70g Muscovado Sugar
2 tbsp Maple Syrup
2 tbsp Date Syrup
1 Medium Lemon, zest and juice
1 Medium Orange, zest and juice

For the Batter

160g Butter, room temperature
360g Ricotta
1 ½ tsp Fermented Fava Bean Paste
3 Eggs
1 Medium Lemon, zest
1 Medium Orange, zest
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Vanilla Pod (reused from top layer)
150g Quinoa Flour
50g Fava Bean Flour
40g Linseeds, ground
40g Almond Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Ground Ginger
2 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Ground Cardamom
¼ tsp Ground Allspice
¼ tsp Ground Cloves
80g Coconut Sugar
6 Bulbs of Stem Ginger
2 tbsp Date Syrup
40g Pecans, roughly chopped

For Final Syrup

1 Medium Orange, juice
1 Medium Lemon, juice
3 tbsp Stem Ginger Juice
2 tbsp Date Syrup
Star Anise, whole

Method

Grease a 21cm cake tin and line it with baking parchment. Double line the bottom, so the juice won't leak out. Start with the top layer. In a small bowl, rub the zest of orange and lemon with a bit of the sugar (2 tbsp) using a teaspoon, so the zest can properly release its oils into the sugar. Tip all ingredients into a small saucepan and bring it to a light simmer. Turn off and set aside to cool down.
Toast the pecans and set them aside. Halve and core the pears. Put them flat side down on a chopping board, hold the tip of the pear with your fingers and slice them lengthways beginning from below the tip, so that the pear still stays together. Put the pears into the prepared tin, belly down (cored side up) and sprinkle with toasted pecans. Set aside.
Make the batter. Combine dry ingredients (not nuts) in a medium bowl. Set aside. Set the oven to 180°C.
Reuse the vanilla pod you used in the top layer glaze by blitzing it with butter in a food processor or using a stick blender. That way you'll get the most use out of your vanilla pod. Add the stem ginger bulbs and blitz a bit more. Tip the vanilla/ginger butter into a large bowl, add the ricotta, sugar and fava bean paste and beat using an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then fold in the nuts. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
Pour the cooled down top glaze syrup into the tin over the pears and then spread the batter evenly over the top of the pears as smoothly as possible, put it in the oven and bake at 180°C for about 75 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. It's a good idea to cover the cake with foil mid way if it starts to brown too quickly. You can take the foil away at the end to finish baking, keeping an eye on the cake so it doesn't burn.
About 10 minutes before the cake is done, prep the final after-bake syrup which you will pour over the cake once it's out of the oven. Simply put all the ingredients into a small saucepan and heat up and once the cake is ready, take it out of the oven, pierce lots of holes in it using a skewer and pour the juice over the top. Set aside and leave it to cool completely before turning it upside down and serving it. It's absolutely delicious served with creme fraiche or whipped cream drizzled with date syrup. Enjoy with tea. It will last in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

View all recipes

Summer Bean Salad with Umami Dressing
Lentil & Mushroom Stew with Millet Dumplings
Upside-down Pear & Ricotta Cake
View All Recipes

Summer Bean Salad with Umami Dressing

View Full Recipe

A summer salad with plenty of ooomph provided by the fabulous depth of the Fava Umami Paste used for the dressing. This is a great dish to prepare ahead; unlike most salads it gets better after a few hours.

Serve alongside roasted tomatoes topped with garlic breadcrumbs for a perfect vegan meal or as a simple side with roast chicken or ham.

Try this dressing in winter time with a red cabbage, carrot, beetroot, orange and Carlin Pea slaw.

This recipe is from Jenny Chandler, author of the superb Pulse cookbook and United Nations Special Ambassador for The Year of Pulses in 2016!

4 as a side dish

Ingredients

Umami Dressing

75ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and cut in half
1-2 tbsp Sherry Vinegar
½ tbsp Maple Syrup
½ tbsp Fava Umami Paste
A good grind of Black Pepper

The Salad

300g Cooked Whole Fava Beans
200g French Beans, trimmed of stalks
200g Runner Beans, de-strung and sliced
200g Podded Fresh Peas (or frozen)
200g Podded Fresh Broad Beans (or frozen)
Handful of Parsley
Handful of Mint

Method

Warm the olive oil and garlic in a small saucepan until you begin to smell the garlic (the idea is to infuse the oil rather than fry the garlic).
Remove the garlic, chop finely and spoon into a jar with a tightly fitting lid. Add the oil along with the remaining dressing ingredients, shake to bring everything together. Taste, you may like to tinker around with the balance, add a little salt if you like but the Umami paste brings so much salty, savoury depth that I doubt you will need it.
Warm the pulses in their cooking juices or any liquid from the tin, drain and then pour over the umami dressing. The warmed pulses will sup up the flavours beautifully.
Now blanch or steam your green veg’, just until tender and then plunge into cold water to keep the vibrant colour. If you are using frozen peas or beans they will need less than a minute in boiling water from frozen
It really is worth double-podding your broad beans to reveal the dazzlingly bright, sweet flesh within.
Chop the mint and parsley roughly.
Mix the greens carefully with the dressed beans and herbs (keeping a few leaves back to garnish the salad with just before serving)
And of course………… you could add sun blush tomatoes, radishes, asparagus, new potatoes, quinoa, pearled spelt or any other bits you feel like.

Lentil & Mushroom Stew with Millet Dumplings

View Full Recipe

Lentils are a great addition to any stew, combining here with the mushrooms to add a satisfying texture and peppery flavour, enriched by crème fraiche. Amy uses millet flour to give the dumplings a short, almost scone-like texture.

This recipe is heavy on the dill, an underappreciated herb in Britain, but if you've not a fan you can swap it out for basil or parsley.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the Stew

2 Carrot, finely chopped
2 Sticks of Celery, finely chopped
1 Onion, finely chopped
400g Mixed Mushrooms, sliced
300g Olive Green Lentils
5 Cloves of Garlic, sliced
1 tbsp Paprika
2 tsp Umami Paste
1lt Stock, of your choice
150g Crème Fraiche
Handful of Fresh Dill, roughly chopped
1 Lemon, to serve
Salt and Pepper, to taste

For the Dumplings

200g Millet Flour
2tbsp Oil
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
150ml Milk
25g Cheddar Cheese, grated
2 tbsp Fresh Dill, roughly chopped
¼ tsp Salt

Method

Set a large oven proof pan or skillet over a high heat and fry the mushrooms in the dry pan until reduced and starting to colour. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and set aside.
Add a generous amount of oil to the pan, along with the carrot, celery, onion and garlic. Fry on a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes until very soft and golden.
Return the mushrooms to the pan, with the paprika, stock and umami paste and simmer with the lid on for 15 to 20 minutes or until the lentils are mostly cooked through.
Meanwhile combine all your dumpling ingredients and bring together into a dough.
Heat your oven to 180C.
Stir in the crème fraiche and a small handful of dill (leaving some for garnish) through the stew, check the seasoning.
Ball the dough into 6 to 8 dumplings and gently add to the stew.
Cover the pan with a lid and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Uncover for a further 5 minutes to crisp the top of the dumplings (optional).
Serve with a garnish of dill and a squeeze of lemon.

Upside-down Pear & Ricotta Cake

View Full Recipe

This show-stopping cake from Tereza Pospíšilová combines quinoa, fava bean and almond flours to create a rich moist cake topped with spiced glazed pears.

The combination of quinoa and fava bean flour as well as ricotta makes this cake especially high in protein. Tereza's recipes are always lower in sugar than traditional cakes, allowing the flavours from the fruit, spices and flour to shine. We also love her creative use of fermented fava bean paste to add an unexpected kick of salty umami.

Ingredients

For the Pears and Syrup

5 to 6 ripe (but still firm) Pears
70g Lightly Salted Butter
60g Toasted Pecans (broken down into quarters)
2 tbsp Stem Ginger Juice
2 Tonka Beans, finely shaved
1 Vanilla Pod (will be reused in making batter)
70g Muscovado Sugar
2 tbsp Maple Syrup
2 tbsp Date Syrup
1 Medium Lemon, zest and juice
1 Medium Orange, zest and juice

For the Batter

160g Butter, room temperature
360g Ricotta
1 ½ tsp Fermented Fava Bean Paste
3 Eggs
1 Medium Lemon, zest
1 Medium Orange, zest
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Vanilla Pod (reused from top layer)
150g Quinoa Flour
50g Fava Bean Flour
40g Linseeds, ground
40g Almond Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Ground Ginger
2 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Ground Cardamom
¼ tsp Ground Allspice
¼ tsp Ground Cloves
80g Coconut Sugar
6 Bulbs of Stem Ginger
2 tbsp Date Syrup
40g Pecans, roughly chopped

For Final Syrup

1 Medium Orange, juice
1 Medium Lemon, juice
3 tbsp Stem Ginger Juice
2 tbsp Date Syrup
Star Anise, whole

Method

Grease a 21cm cake tin and line it with baking parchment. Double line the bottom, so the juice won't leak out. Start with the top layer. In a small bowl, rub the zest of orange and lemon with a bit of the sugar (2 tbsp) using a teaspoon, so the zest can properly release its oils into the sugar. Tip all ingredients into a small saucepan and bring it to a light simmer. Turn off and set aside to cool down.
Toast the pecans and set them aside. Halve and core the pears. Put them flat side down on a chopping board, hold the tip of the pear with your fingers and slice them lengthways beginning from below the tip, so that the pear still stays together. Put the pears into the prepared tin, belly down (cored side up) and sprinkle with toasted pecans. Set aside.
Make the batter. Combine dry ingredients (not nuts) in a medium bowl. Set aside. Set the oven to 180°C.
Reuse the vanilla pod you used in the top layer glaze by blitzing it with butter in a food processor or using a stick blender. That way you'll get the most use out of your vanilla pod. Add the stem ginger bulbs and blitz a bit more. Tip the vanilla/ginger butter into a large bowl, add the ricotta, sugar and fava bean paste and beat using an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then fold in the nuts. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
Pour the cooled down top glaze syrup into the tin over the pears and then spread the batter evenly over the top of the pears as smoothly as possible, put it in the oven and bake at 180°C for about 75 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. It's a good idea to cover the cake with foil mid way if it starts to brown too quickly. You can take the foil away at the end to finish baking, keeping an eye on the cake so it doesn't burn.
About 10 minutes before the cake is done, prep the final after-bake syrup which you will pour over the cake once it's out of the oven. Simply put all the ingredients into a small saucepan and heat up and once the cake is ready, take it out of the oven, pierce lots of holes in it using a skewer and pour the juice over the top. Set aside and leave it to cool completely before turning it upside down and serving it. It's absolutely delicious served with creme fraiche or whipped cream drizzled with date syrup. Enjoy with tea. It will last in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Typical values	Per 100g
Energy	432kJ (103kcal)
Fat	0.5g
of which saturates	0.1g
Carbohydrate	13.0g
of which sugars	2.1g
Fibre	5.8g
Protein	8.6g
Salt	9.5g

Cart

Your Basket is Empty

Trending ProductsView All Products

Fava Bean Umami Paste

Cooking instructions

Ingredients

Allergy information

To store

Production

Packaging

More From This Collection

Flamingo Peas

Naked Flamingo Peas, Organic

Naked Flamingo Peas, Organic

Whole Flamingo Peas, Organic

Whole Flamingo Peas, Organic

Autumn Pulse & Grain Bundle

Autumn Pulse & Grain Bundle

The Seed Detective Bundle

Grist Bundle

Grist Bundle

You may also like

Hodmedod's Pulse Club - April Selection

Hodmedod's Pulse Club - April Selection

Wholemeal Sourdough Selection

Wholemeal Sourdough Selection

Fava Bean Umami Paste

Fava Bean Umami Paste

Olive Green Lentils

Olive Green Lentils

Mix #1 - Broth

Mix #1 - Broth

Recipes using Fava Bean Umami Paste

Ingredients

Umami Dressing

The Salad

Method

Ingredients

For the Stew

For the Dumplings

Method

Ingredients

For the Pears and Syrup

For the Batter

For Final Syrup

Method

Summer Bean Salad with Umami Dressing

Ingredients

Umami Dressing

The Salad

Method

Lentil & Mushroom Stew with Millet Dumplings

Ingredients

For the Stew

For the Dumplings

Method

Upside-down Pear & Ricotta Cake

Ingredients

For the Pears and Syrup

For the Batter

For Final Syrup

Method

Customer Reviews

Follow

Looking for our trade website?

Spill the beans!

Newsletter