Easy, Delicious Hummus

This week I’m away putting the final touches on a new book, so I’ve asked some of my favorite bloggers to share a few of their favorite things with you. Today, Misty from Dorman Creations shares her recipe for hummus. Personally, I have a never-ending love affair with hummus and the version she shares looks absolutely scrumptious. Just looking at this recipe makes me want to skip my work and go make a batch! ~Kresha

Can I just say I was honored to be asked by Kresha to do a guest post this week for her blog? As a fairly new blogger, I find myself in awe of all of the other great bloggers out there and am so grateful to now be a part of a community of people who care about finding healthier ways to live, more intentional ways to raise their kids, and just generally lots of great ideas to share.

Let me start by saying I have hated beans my entire life.

I hated eating a lot of healthy foods most of my life, actually. I don't think I ever ate any vegetable other than corn and potatoes (do those even count?) and the occasional few bites of lettuce until well into my adulthood. I was super picky.

Most of my meals consisted of lots of pasta and/or bread (and not much else). When I was a kid, my mom used to make me my own separate pot of chili with “no beans.” It wasn't until I was 19 that I found out she was pureeing them and putting them in there anyway! I felt a bit betrayed at first, but her chili is good, so I got over it.

In my adult life, I have been trying to force myself to add more and more healthy foods to my diet and I'm finding that the more I try them, the more I like them.

It takes a little while to acquire a taste for a new flavor, so my current frame of mind is that if it's healthy and I don't find it to be completely repulsive, I will keep trying it several times and several different ways, in hopes that I will find a way to like it. I even bought a few recipe books for how to hide vegetables in your kids' food….but I bought them for myself. Hey, you have to start somewhere, right?

It usually starts out as me finding a somewhat unhealthy way to get myself to eat it (soy sauce makes almost everything edible) and then branching out into finding more and more healthy ways to make it as I try to acquire a liking for the food.

On the beans front, I learned that I actually really like edamame. I'm still on my journey of getting myself to like other beans. So far, I've found ways to eat lentils and chickpeas and against every fiber of my being, I tried the bean dip at Rubio's restaurant recently and I actually liked it! I still don't think I would go around telling people that I “like” beans yet or bite into any beans that I find in my bowl of chili, but I'm making progress.

Anyway, it was this desire to branch out into trying different beans that led me to first trying a cookie dough dip recipe that used chickpeas and then trying hummus.

Recently, I managed to find this hummus recipe that our whole family (even me) enjoyed.

The great thing about hummus is that you can spread it on all kinds of things (pita bread, crackers, tortillas, bell peppers, carrots, etc) and it makes for a really great snack option that even babies can eat. I made up a batch of this stuff right before a recent road trip to Mexico. Before packing it into the cooler, I spread some hummus in between two whole wheat soft tortilla shells (like a hummus sandwich) and cut them into strips. I kept these handy in the car and our 10 month old snacked on them when she was getting a little grumpy.

I love how healthy it is too (and I feel so empowered to be eating beans – something I have loathed my entire life)!

Real Hummus Recipe

Ingredients

2 cloves chopped garlic (I used garlic paste instead)
1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), half the liquid reserved (or you can cook your own chickpeas if you prefer)
4 tablespoons lemon juice
3 TBSP tahini (this is sesame seed paste – you can get it at the health food store)
1/2 tsp salt
cumin or black pepper to taste (I just used a pinch of cumin)
2 TBSP olive oil

Instructions

Drain garbanzo beans, reserving at least 1/2 cup of the liquid. Pour drained garbanzo beans into blender, reserving about a tablespoon for garnish (if you want to make it look fancy). Place lemon juice, tahini, chopped garlic and salt in blender. Add 1/2 cup of the reserved garbanzo bean liquid. Blend until creamy and well mixed. Add more of the liquid & blend some more, if desired. Transfer the mixture to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with cumin or black pepper and pour olive oil over the top. Garnish with reserved garbanzo beans.

Note: Technically, I don't think this is real hummus if you swap out the tahini with peanut butter, but if you're in a real pinch, I think you could try making it that way. Just remember not to feed peanut butter to your baby if you are avoiding it due to potential allergies.

I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as ours did!

What is your favorite snack to eat with hummus?