As a food, hummus is enjoying more and more notice in North America. Long a staple of cuisines such as the Mediterranean, Egyptian, and Indian cultures, America has been slower to recognize its unique texture, taste, and health benefits. Luckily, this is changing as stores begin carrying national brands as well as their own store brands, and consumers are driving this change.

Hummus has a reputation as a ‘clean’ food, and it definitely deserves its healthy reputation. Each ingredient in hummus is a superfood in their own right: chickpeas, olive oil, tahini, garlic, and lemon juice. All these items have fabulous health benefits. Unfortunately, ‘Big Food’ can manage to take all these good things and ruin it with additives, chemicals, sweeteners, and preservatives.

The great news is, hummus is super easy to make! And the even better news is that it is so easy to create new hummus flavors and recipes based on what you enjoy. For a plain classic hummus recipe, check out this post, and for a different take, read my Feta and Red Pepper Hummus recipe. On the future try-it list: Beet hummus & edamame hummus. Keep an eye out for those posts.

In this recipe, I show how you don’t have to stick to the expected ‘chickpea’ for the protein and texture. Any old bean type will do honestly, so be creative. If chickpeas don’t do it for you, try lima beans, or black eyed peas. As long as it is in the legume family it should work out texture wise.

Using dried beans makes this recipe incredibly cheap, but you could use canned beans to skip the cooking step; just add straight to the blender. Also if you don’t want to buy a whole can of tahini, you can use any nut butter like peanut butter or almond butter. All tahini is, is roasted and blended sunflower seeds.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rinsed black beans
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika

Step 1: Rinse the black beans & make sure there are no rocks/dirt/debris. Place in a crock pot with enough water to cover, and cook on low for 4-6 hours, until beans are soft.

Step 2: If using canned beans, start here with rinsing. Rinse the beans under cool water until it runs clear.

Step 3: Add the beans to the blender, along with the spices, tahini, and lemon juice.

Step 4:  Turn the blender on, and drizzle in the olive oil. Scrape down the sides as needed. Once it reaches the desired consistency, just put in a bowl and you’re done! If it’s too thick, you can add a little more oil or lemon juice, or even warm water, until it’s how you like.

Once you have your homemade hummus, there are so many options for how to enjoy it! For a nice presentation, drizzle on a little more oil, and sprinkle with paprika. It is a delicious dip for cut fresh veggies, spread it on any kind of sandwiches and wraps, bake your own chips to dip, or use it on pizza like a sauce.

Hummus has tons of plant protein and filling fiber, just try to restrain yourself from eating the whole batch at once.

 

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