Living in the nutritional ketosis world for the past 15 months or so, I’ve only pulled together a hummus plate a couple of times; now that I think about it, both were for entertaining company with a big crudite spread before the main meal event.
Don’t get me wrong, we’re big fans of a well-prepared and flavored hummus; some of our favorite eateries here in the DFW metro serve up a wonderful butterbean hummus as part of their Southern-inspired menus – and it’s always delicious with an innovative platter of crispy vegetables alongside.
We just haven’t served up hummus of late as I’ve been running (very comfortably I might add) at or below 20 grams of soluble carbs per day for more than a year now, and let’s face it, a nice hummus with a plate full of crispy crudite could easily double or triple amount in one sitting. (For the record, I’ve never played the keto game as if the keto police were looking over my shoulder; I’ve simply felt great at that level, and it’s allowed me to fairly painlessly accomplish my weight loss and body recomposition goals this past year.)
And like many of you as well who are thriving eating a low/lower carb nutrition plan, we pretty much carved legumes out of our routine several years ago, not only for their carb load relative to nutrient content, but their anti-nutrients as well. Truthfully, I can’t even recall the last time I cooked a big “pot of beans” at home, though I have to confess we very rarely and thoughtfully nibble at some when eating TexMex out with friends.
That said, my lovely wife recently developed a hankering for some hummus and veg to take to work for lunch during these blisteringly hot Texas summer days; the same week, two clients asked me if we had a favorite hummus recipe to share as well.
This Butterbean Hummus recipe is one that we worked out years ago, originally of course with chickpeas, though it works with just about any other cooked legume; here we’re using butterbeans, though Great Northerns would work as well. And as in the image above, we like ours with a bit of fresh ground pepper and a dusting of a good paprika as well.
Of note, many prepared hummus products you will find at your favorite grocer are make with canned beans (BPA risk), terrible seed oils, and other preservatives and stabilizers. It’s far better to soak and cook your legumes of choice (even better if fermented too), use quality oils and tahini, fresh lemons and spices, and you’ll craft a hummus worthy of an indulgence now and again.
4 cups cooked and cooled legume of choice (chickpeas, butterbeans, Great Northern, etc)
1/4 cup cold water
Freshly squeezed juice of 1-2 lemons (2-4 tbsp)
2 tbsp good tahini paste (more to taste)
2 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp (generous) ground cumin
Good salt and pepper to taste
For service, drizzle with more olive or avocado oil, finely chopped cilantro, maybe even a dusting of paprika or cumin/coriander.
This one is easy and intuitive to stir blend together. Into your trusty food processor go the cooked legumes, followed by the next 7 ingredients. Blend together until as smooth as you like (we like a little texture in our hummus), and adjust the tahini, lemon, cumin, salt, and pepper to your tastes.
Serve either at room temp or chilled (we like it chilled during these hot summer days), and drizzle with more oil and any of the optional finishing touches above.
Enjoy.
