Samah Dada - Dada Eats: Love to Cook it: 100 Plant-Based Recipes for Everyone at Your Table: A Cookbook

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When I was seven, I carried around a notebooksparkly, and dolphin cladso that I could write in it what I thought would be some sort of mystery novel, solely because I wanted to be an author. I am beyond grateful to everyone who has made that a possibility for me.

Donna, Jen, Stephanie, and everyone involved in the process at Penguin Random House/Harmony and Rodale, thank you for the immense work and attention that you gave to this book and to me. It is a dream come true. Julia Gartland, Sam Seneviratne, Sophie Strangio, Catherine Yoo, Charlotte Havelange, and Daniel Restrepo, making these words and recipes come to life in photo form with people as incredible, kind, and fun as you all is something I will never forget.

To my incredible agents at CAA. Thank you Anthony, for being there for me and backing my vision at every step of this processI could never have done any of this without you. Jordan, for both encouraging me and never letting me doubt that my ambitions can be achieved.

I am indebted to my dear family at the Today show. Savannah, Hoda, Craig, Al, Carson, Sheinelle, and Dylanthank you for supporting me on-air, but especially off-air. Your genuine warmth and kindness has never failed to amaze me. To Libby, Mazz, Debbie, Noah, and Elizabeth, thank you for giving me a shot when I least expected it. To Erica, Emi, Sky, Carter, Abby, Katie, Ryan, Jared, Evan, Pete, Emily, Edna, and to every stage manager, stagehand, camera operator, wardrobe, hair, and makeup person. To Alison, Molly, Jazzi, and Emma, for being my dearest PA teamit would be a lot more difficult to wake up at 3 a.m. if I wasnt greeted by your faces every day. To all of you and everyone at Today I appreciate each of you for making me feel seen, and creating a place that was my home away from home, at all hours of the day, and for never failing to be ready to try my recipes (even if that meant brownies in the control room at 4 a.m.).

To my NBC Page cohort that quickly turned into family, thank you for showing me what it feels like to belong.

To my kind, funny, encouraging, genuine blog readers and Instagram community. None of this would be possible without your support and love. Thank you.

To my dear friends, you have been my biggest champions, my family away from my own.

Rebecca, for inspiring me with your unconditionally accepting nature and mad hosting skills. Annabelle, for providing me with a safe space to exist in unfailingly, with honest, compassionate, and thought-provoking advice. Nakta, for being my precious gift confidante and the older sister I never had but always wanted. Skylar, for a no-judgment zone and a place I can go to with literally everything. Aisha, for always reading what I write, and feeling a love for words and food as deeply as I do. Andi, for never-ending support and promoting my recipes even when youre on a first date. Montana, for being one the few people who made high school bearable. Cynthia, for realness, loyalty, and 90 percent of my music taste. Mackenzie, for being my original bean, despite the copious amounts of chickpeas in this book. Casey, for all of our early frolicking in New York. Marisa, for showing me what strength and empowerment in the self look like. Talia, for being my first friend at college and offering unwavering friendship since. Denise, for making me feel appreciated, even when thats on the bunk above you for years at college. Lisa, Sammy, and Meg, my online friends turned offline confidantes. Hannah, for consistently showing up and lending an ear. Maddie, for high vibe, water cooler chats and cheering me on in anything I do. Melea, for your essay-length texts and mom advice that invigorates me. Adam, for our friendship and your belief in me since day one. Donald, for encouraging anyone with a pulse to follow me on Instagram. Sophia, for always keeping it real. Laura, for making London a place that was hard to leave. Jess (Quinnie!), for embracing me literally and figuratively, despite our distance. Cassie, for inspiring me through our friendship and everything weve done together for This T-Shirt. Immense gratitude and all my love to you all.

And finally to my family, you have my whole heart.

Amiyayour love for cooking, hospitality, generosity, and your insane ability to do anything and everything (no questions asked) is something I have always and will always look up to. Nanu, your resilience, strength, and incomparable cooking that you passed to Mama (thanks for that by the way!) is why Im here in the first place.

Suhaa, my sis, you are one of the most fiercely persistent, driven, and ambitious people I know. Thank you for always giving me a strong dose of reality when I need it. Im grateful to have you as my sister, but feel even luckier to have you as a friend. Papa, I know you really wanted me to take that economics class in college but look! I wrote a book! So I guess it ended up okay. Your unfailing patience and support has meant everything to me. Mama, thank you for picking up the phone always, even when I ask you the most meaningless questions, like Do I want to eat a quesadilla or a salad for dinner? Among everything you have given me (which is immeasurable, by the way) your friendship has meant the most. Cooking with you is pretty cool, too. I love you all more than I can ever say, and I am proud to have you as my inner orbit.

Thank you to anyone who has ever tarnished my feelings of belonging throughout my life, because in doing that you showed me that I do. And to anybody who has felt different, othered, not enough, and especially to a younger version of me who lived mostly in fear and not in triumphyou are already all of what you need to be, right now.

Love,

Samah

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Samah Dada is a New York Citybased recipe developer, food photographer, and the blogger behind Dada Eats (instagram.com /dadaeats). Inspired by the foodscapes of London and California, she has made multiple appearances on the Today show and is now the host of NBCs digital show #Cooking with Samah Dada.

OG Hummus

Serves 68

Hummus is a key component of my personality. Give me your hummus puns, your hummus-centric restaurants, your hummus skepticism (and Ill turn it into adoration). While hummus is traditionally made using dried chickpeas that are soaked and then cooked until they break down, I recognize that canned chickpeas are a lot more accessible and convenient for most of us. I, for one, make hummus using canned chickpeas, and know that this method yields great results. The trick is (1) blending until you literally cannot blend anymore so the tahini and chickpeas really marry each other and become extremely, velvety smooth and (2) not rinsing the chickpeas beforehand so they hang onto the aquafaba (the chickpea brine in the can), which will actually allow for fluffier hummus.

Its also important to pay attention to the tahini. The best, highest-quality sesame seeds are called Humera seeds, and theyre sourced from a specific region in Ethiopia. Buy a brand of tahini made with Humera seeds and youre on your way to an obscenely delicious hummus. Whether youre using dried chickpeas or canned, the only thing I urge you to do is to break up with store-bought hummus. Homemade hummus is far fresher and tastier than its store-dwelling counterparts.