Easy delicious healthy hummus

I'm kind of stealing this from the E2 Extra website with some changes.  But it's so basic, I hope it's okay.

Ingredients:
2 cans unsalted chickpeas, drained, but save the liquid!
3 cloves of roasted garlic
juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp ground cumin (or if that seems too strong, start with 1 tsp and you can add more later to taste)
1 tsp low-sodium tamari (or soy) sauce (optional)
liquid from the can, to desired consistency
paprika

Roast the garlic in the oven, 375 for 20 minutes (just put them unpeeled, uncovered in a little pan).   Let cool.  Squeeze out the gooey insides into your blender (smells great!).  Add the lemon juice, some liquid from the can (start with 1/4 cup), the cumin, the tamari, and about 1/4 of the beans.  Blend until very smooth.  Add all but 1/4 of the beans, blend until smooth, add liquid if you want it less thick.  Then add the last of the beans and blend to desired consistency.  If you want a smooth base with a few chunks of chickpeas, blend some.  If you want it all smooth, keep blending.   Spoon into a bowl and top with paprika to make it look pretty.

I've become such a salt wimp that even 1 tsp of the tamari seemed too much.  So I think I'll go without it next time.  Or go down to 1/2 tsp or 1/4 tsp just to get that little flavor.

Mexican hummus

I wanted some hummus but didn't have any of the usual ingredients except sesame seeds but I wasn't in the mood for those either, so I came up with this. I call it Mexican hummus because of the southwest flavors (cilantro, lime, cumin). It is very creamy and yummy. Note that my ingredients are just what I had on hand--you can do the same. The basic idea is to use a bean of some kind, spice--usually cumin (but in searching for the cumin I saw pumpkin pie spice and did wonder what that would be like), some kind of nuts or seeds, and citrus or vinegar flavoring.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb beans, (I chose "Eye of the Goat" heirloom beans because they were in the cupboard, and they looked like they would be creamy)

4 cloves garlic, or to taste

1-2 oz walnuts and pignolias

juice of 1 lime and 1/2 small orange (I didn't have lemon)

some cilantro

1 tsp cumin

Soak the beans overnight, and cook for about 3 hours. Here are the beans I used:

I roasted my garlic so it wouldn't have as strong a bite.

I put it in this little 1/3 cup measuring cup with some bean juice (dark from the beans, not roasting), and put it in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes.

Next, blend up the nuts, garlic, juice, cumin, and some bean liquid (1/2 cup?) and just some of the beans. First I want to get the nuts nice and pulverized. Then add the rest of the beans and as much bean liquid as you want for your desired consistency. Then add the cilantro and pulse. Then you can top with paprika. Here it is with an orange bell pepper slice dipped and ready for eating.

another chickpea hummus recipe

I don't think there is anything better than blackbean hummus, but this is a good chickpea version.

Ingredients:

1 cups dried chickpeas, soak overnight, or 1 can

1-2 cloves garlic, depending on your tastes

1 oz macadamia nuts and 1 oz sesame seeds, or 2 oz sesame seeds

juice of one small or medium lemon

1 tsp cumin

paprika

herbs to taste, e.g., basil, cilantro, parsley, dried or fresh (optional)

Cook the chickpeas if dried. Cook them in veggie stock and garlic to add flavor, if desired. (save the bean juice for "bean tea," i.e., something to drink later on).

Combine some of the bean water, lemon juice, and nuts and seeds in the blender, blend until smooth. Let it blend for a long enough time to get those sesame seeds all ground up. Add the garlic, cumin, and beans and blend until smooth, adding enough bean water for desired consistency. Add the herbs and pulse until they are well-mixed but not too finely blended. Put in a bowl, and add the paprika on top to make it look pretty.

I like the macadamia nuts because they add some richness and creaminess, to make up for the olive oil which we don't add/

regular hummus

Here is my plain hummus recipe. I like this more and more as my taste buds change. Okay, this recipe looks almost identical to leangreenmama's, but I promise I didn't steal it. Over time, I finally learned how to do this using sesame seeds instead of store-bought tahini. You have to use the blender for this. It makes a real creamy hummus.

Ingredients:

1 cup dried chick peas or 1 can

juice of one lemon

1/4 cup sesame seeds (raw, unhulled)

1 tsp low sodium tamari or soy sauce (optional)

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1-4 garlic cloves

If using dried chick peas, soak overnight, then cook for 4 hours. or quick soak by boiling in water, then letting sit for an hour. You can pressure cook them in about 12 minutes I think.

I like to cook the garlic so it doesn't taste so strong. This worked well for me: put the garlic in a metal measuring cup or some tiny pot you can put in the oven. Add part of the lemon juice to cover. Bake in the oven for, I don't know, 10-20 minutes, until you just start to smell the garlic.

Next, the sesame seeds. Rinse them and put them in the blender. Add the lemon juice, some cooking liquid from the chickpeas, maybe 1/3 cup, and a few chickpeas, maybe 1/4 cup. Blend up. If you need more volume, add more water and chickpeas, but not too much. Let this blend for a few minutes so it starts to thicken--that's when the sesame seeds are well blended. Then add everything else. Add the bean juice as needed to reach your desired consistency.

sweet potato & chickpea hummus

I really have a thing for baked sweet potatoes even though Mr. curious has informed me of the health hazards of acrylamides. Sweet potatoes and peanut butter are my acrylamide weaknesses. Anyway, this was good!

Ingredients

1 baked sweet potato (350 F for one hour, let cool) (or steam it and no worries about acrylamides)

1 cup chickpeas soaked overnight, then cooked in water for about 4 hours. or 1 can.

1 clove garlic (or a bunch of ramps like I had today)

1 tsp ground cumin

juice of 1 lemon

3 Tbsp sesame seeds (or tahini)

Today I used ramps instead of garlic. I like to cook them (either one) slightly. I added the onion part of the ramps (or garlic) to the hot beans. or you can heat them in water for a few minutes. I chopped the ramp greens and heated them in water for a few minutes---otherwise they have a very strong peppery garlicy flavor (which is good but strong).

Okay, put the garlic, sesame seeds, lemon, and some bean water and chickpeas in your powerful blender. Put in enough stuff so that it can blend nicely. Let it blend up for a while so the seeds get nicely ground up. It thickens up when this happens. Then throw everything else but the ramp greens in and blend. Add bean liquid to reach your desired consistency. Then throw in the ramp greens and blend just enough to chop them a bit (I chop before adding too).

We only have ramps a few weeks a year, so I will use garlic the rest of the time. but you could throw in chives or cilantro or basil at the end. or parsley.

black bean hummus

This is the best hummus I have ever had. My house guests are in agreement. This is very similar to the recipe on Dr. Fuhrman's member's only website, so I feel guilty about posting here but I want to remind myself of my technique for making it because I use sesame seeds instead of tahini, to name one difference.

Ingredients:

1 cup dried black beans, soaked overnight, cook for a couple of hours (or 1 15-oz can)

juice of one lemon (or orange juice!)

1 cup water or cooking liquid from the beans

1 Tbsp VegiZest (optional)

1/4 cup sesame seeds (raw, unhulled)

1-2 tsp low sodium tamari or soy sauce

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1-3 garlic cloves or 1/4 tsp garlic granules

paprika for garnish

pinch cayenne (optional)

If using garlic cloves, I like to cook them a little to mellow the flavor. I put them in a little metal measuring cup, in some of the bean water or lemon juice, put that in the oven for about 10-20 minutes at 350 F, until you can smell the garlic a bit.

I made this in the blender so I could get the sesame seeds grinded up into a tahini sauce. So first I put the sesame seeds, lemon juice, tamari, garlic, some juice from the beans (say 1/3 cup to start), some of the beans, and blend that up. You need enough volume and thickness (with help from a few beans) to get the sesame seeds to blend. It seems to be about 1 cup total in my blender that's required. You can tell when they are getting ground up because the liquid thickens, and it steams from the heat. Then add everything else except the paprika and blend some more. Add bean liquid for desired consistency--you may not need a whole cup, just whatever you like. The makes a nice very smooth hummus.

Pretty Good Hummus

I'm still working on my hummus recipe but this is better than last time.
You need a food processor for this

Ingredients:
1 cup dried chickpeas of 15 oz can of no-salt chickpeas.
1-2 garlic cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
Juice on 1 lemon
1/2 avocado
Couple of fresh basil leaves, chives if you happen to have them in our garden and it's summer (optional)
1/2 peeled, diced sweet potato, steamed until soft (optional)

If you are using dried chickpeas (they taste better), soak overnight, then cook up in the morning for about 4 hours. Drain, but save some of the cooking water.

Throw the garlic in the food processor and blend it. Add the chickpeas, avocado, sweet potato, cumin, and half the lemon juice. Blend. Taste it, and add more lemon juice to taste. Add chickpea water if you need more liquid. Blend some more. When it's nice and smooth, then add the herbs and blend for short time, just enough to chop the herbs but not pummel them.

A normal hummus recipe has 1-2 Tbsp tahini plus olive oil, instead of avocado, and no sweet potato. I'm not a big fan of tahini and think oil is evil, but want the creamy consistency, so tried the avocado instead. Of course, it adds (healthy) fat, so if you are watching your calories, don't add the avocado, or add less. If you don't care about the calories and want it real creamy, throw the whole avocado in (without the pit and the skin of course).