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The spread’s

secret is in a

straightforward

subrecipe that

Terry calls

‘umami powder.’

For the sauce:

Kosher salt and freshly ground

black pepper

1 medium head broccoli, cut into fl orets,

thick stem reserved for another use

½ pound dried pasta, such as spaghetti

½ cup loosely packed roughly

chopped fresh dill, plus more for garnish

1 large garlic clove, minced

⅓ cup umami powder

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Fresh lemon juice, as needed

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over
   high heat.


2. Prepare the umami powder: Grind
   the porcini in a spice grinder until pulverized,
   then transfer to a food processor. Add the
   remaining ingredients to the food processor,
   and pulse until the mixture is broken down
   into a fine meal. (Makes about 1¼ cups.)


3. Prepare the pasta: Season the boiling water
   with salt, then add the broccoli, and cook
   until tender, 2-3 minutes. Use a slotted spoon
   to remove the broccoli, then rinse with cold
   water, and gently pat dry with a clean kitchen
   towel. Add pasta to the boiling water you
   used to cook the broccoli, and cook until tender.


4. While the pasta cooks, prepare the sauce:
   In the same food processor you used for
   the umami powder (no need to wash it out),
   add the cooked broccoli, dill, garlic and ⅓
   cup umami powder, and process until finely
   chopped. With the machine running, slowly
   pour in the oil. Scrape down the sides of the
   food processor with a spatula, and mix
   again, then season to taste with salt, pepper
   and lemon juice.


5. Reserve ½ cup pasta cooking water,
   and drain the cooked pasta. Return the
   pasta to the pot, and toss with broccoli
   sauce, thinning with a splash of the reserved
   pasta water if needed to help coat the
   pasta. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
   Garnish with a sprinkle of umami powder
   and fresh dill.

Yield: 2-4 servings, plus extra umami powder.

Adapted from ‘‘Vegetable Kingdom,’’ by Bryant Terry.

Broccoli-Dill Pasta

Time: 30 minutes

For the umami powder:

¾ ounce dried porcini mushrooms,

roughly chopped

¾ cup whole raw cashews

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

2 tablespoons raw pine nuts

1 teaspoon fi ne sea salt

On the fi rst day of spring, Bryant Terry

was at home in Oakland, transferring

the compost from a bin in the yard to

the raised beds, planting collards, mus-

tard greens, turnips, bok choy, yu choy

and early tomatoes. The tour for his new

cookbook, ‘‘Vegetable Kingdom: The

Abundant World of Vegan Recipes,’’ had

been canceled in the chaos of the corona-

virus. Restaurants and bars were closed —

schools, too. Those who could be at home

were staying put. And Terry, a cookbook

author and the chef in residence of the

Museum of the African Diaspora, was

now, like so many parents, a full-time

home-schooler.

‘‘My saving grace is cooking,’’ Terry

said. ‘‘I’ve been making a lot of elaborate

meals for the family, and having the kids

help more in the kitchen, and really step

up their duties.’’ In his new cookbook, his

daughters, Mila and Zenzi, ages 9 and 5,

are mentioned in the very fi rst sentence.

The book was made for them — a collec-

tion of what Terry calls Afro-Asian food,

which represent his family’s multicultur-

al identities. The recipes come together

with fl avors and techniques by way of the

African diaspora, China, Japan and Viet-

nam. Many are also a guide to getting a

picky child to eat her vegetables.

Terry’s broccoli-dill sandwich spread,

a quick purée made with broccoli and

dill, seasoned with lemon and garlic, is

a kind of delicious all-purpose dip, sauce

and spread that quickly became a part

of my own repertoire. Terry said it was

inspired by a roasted-vegetable sandwich

he often picked up after working out at

the downtown Y.M.C.A. in Oakland. ‘‘I’m

always thinking creatively about how I

can make these recipes appealing to my

kids, and other kids,’’ he said. ‘‘My older

daughter has a very adventurous palate,

but with our younger, we used to have

to push her to eat more than pastas,

crackers and bread.’’ When Terry made

the broccoli spread and both children

liked it, he didn’t make more iterations,

or keep developing the recipe. ‘‘I thought,

let’s just roll with this,’’ Terry said. In his

house, it’s spread on crackers, used as a

dip for crudités or as part of a snack plat-

ter, layered inside sandwiches and tossed

with hot noodles.

The broccoli spread’s secret is in a

straightforward subrecipe that Terry calls

‘‘umami powder,’’ a mix of cashews, pine

nuts and dried porcini. And the umami

powder’s secret is in a bump of nutrition-

al yeast. ‘‘Back in my more.... ’’ Terry

paused to choose his words carefully.

‘‘My macrobiotic-leaning days, I would

use it as a cheese analogue, like a topping

for popcorn.’’ But as a chef now so well

known for his contemporary vegan cook-

ing, Terry has been reluctant to use nutri-

tional yeast beyond popcorn. ‘‘It’s often

associated with the way people imagine

vegan cooking to be,’’ he said. ‘‘Harking

back to that 1970s, old-school Berkeley

hippie perception.’’ For years, it was used

more like a supplement than an ingre-

dient — or aggressively piled on top of

vegan dishes to lend them a savory note.

Nutritional yeast is made from dried, pas-

teurized yeast cream — commercial yeast

grown on a sugar medium like molasses

and then concentrated — and though it

does sound clinical, when it’s used with

care, it lends the cheesy, meaty, funky

quality of a little grated hard cheese.

To make Terry’s broccoli spread, bring

a big pot of water to boil and blanch some

broccoli fl orets for a couple of minutes,

until they’re tender. Use a slotted spoon

to take out the broccoli, and get some

pasta going in the same pot of water.

From here, the broccoli goes into a food

processor with a bunch of fresh dill, a lit-

tle garlic and some of that umami powder.

While the machine is running, pour in

some olive oil. That’s your sauce, though

you’ll need to tweak it with salt, pepper

and some lemon juice.

Once the pasta is cooked and drained,

the broccoli sauce goes in, with a bunch

more fresh dill on top. It’s green and

bright and full of fl avor. The only prob-

lem, if you consider this a problem, is

that the recipe doesn’t go through all the

nutritional yeast you’ll buy to make it. But

if you’ve got extra, do what Terry used

to do: In a large bowl, mix it with a little

olive oil, fl aky salt and black pepper, and

toss it with some hot popcorn.