Healthy Country Hummus Recipe – How to Make Hummus

If you don’t like hummus, you may like my Healthy Country Hummus because…well, it is different. I’ll tell you why my homemade hummus is so different as we are making the recipe together. So put on your apron, wash your hands and let’s get started.

Healthy Country Hummus Recipe

In case you didn’t know, hummus starts with garbanzo beans which are also known as chickpeas, chana, sanagalu and ceci beans. Regardless of what you call them, I think a garbanzo bean looks fancy and festive even though I know it is really just a plain bean. Do you think I’m a nut or do you kind of agree?

Anyway, I soaked the garbanzo beans overnight, then I put them in a pot with garlic and…

a 1/2 cup of diced onions. I kept the water boiling rapidly for an hour until the garbanzo beans were soft and I could smoosh them between my fingers easily. When the garbanzo beans were finished cooking, I put them in the blender.

I turned on the blender and watched the beans turn into a smooth mixture.

Oh yeah, it started looking like my homemade hummus recipe was going to be nice and smooth.

Now comes the big difference in my recipe and authentic hummus recipes. First of all, I don’t keep tahini (sesame paste) in my pantry. I’m pretty sure that my country relatives have no idea what tahini is and I’m SURE that neither of my country grandmothers ever heard of it. They were REAL country women and lived in a whole different era and world than tahini.

Anyway, since I don’t eat hummus every day, it would be rather wasteful to buy tahini and then let all except 1/3 of a cup go bad. I also don’t add peanut butter in place of tahini because Alyssa hates peanut butter. Therefore, I needed to come up with a hummus recipe that would satisfy as a yummy dip without tahini.

So what do I do?

I added lemon juice, cayenne pepper, cumin and salt in the blender. Then I turned the blender on to mix all the ingredients.

I can hear you. Since there isn’t any olive oil or tahini…so if you want to say it isn’t REAL hummus go ahead. When I dip into the homemade hummus, it feels real to my tongue and tastes real to my tastebuds. It is very mellow and this hummus recipe is not fattening unless you spread it on a thick slice of toasted buttered french bread. (hanging my head in shame)

We will pretend I didn’t confess anything in my last sentence.

So you scoop the homemade hummus in a bowl, add onions on top and dip cucumber slices into it.

As long as you are using cucumbers to scoop the hummus, you won’t be adding any calories or fat!

I could eat beans until they run out my ears, so I really love the zip of flavor this healthy country hummus has when using it as a spread or dip.

Not only is this hummus recipe very simple to make, but it has a very simple flavor.

If you haven’t ever liked hummus before, you may actually like the flavor of my country hummus.

When you really want to spiff it up, you can add grated cheese, black olives and diced jalapenos to the hummus too.

Of course, I didn’t add any of those ingredients or Alyssa wouldn’t eat my hummus. Olives are really just not her thing.

I know most people use chips to dip, so you can use chips too.

They do add a nice crunch and the round fat molecules roll around on your tongue nicely, but they also have a tendency to find the hips and take a vacation there.

After eating three chips, I went back to using cucumbers as my means to scoop up the homemade hummus that is void of olive oil and tahini, tahini, tahini, tahini. LOL

I’m sure that by grandmothers would ask, “Ta what?” and think I was becoming a “highfalutin’ city girl.” Being true to my roots, I created a nutritious, low calorie, healthy country hummus recipe. So all you hummus haters, do you think you will give it a try? If you don’t want to make it yourself, come on over and I’ll make some for you. We will eat the homemade hummus on freshly toasted, hot, buttered french bread. No! No! No! I mean we will scoop it with cucumbers! (wink)
 

Healthy Country Hummus

Ingredients:

16 ounces garbanzo beans
8 cups cold water
6 cups warm/hot water
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup onions, diced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cumin, ground
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup onions, diced
Optional: 1/2 cup grated cheese, 1/4 cup black olives and 1/4 cup diced jalapeno peppers

Directions:

Add garbanzo beans and cold water to a large pot. Let sit overnight (approximately 8 hours). After soaking, pour off water and rinse beans. Then add garbanzo beans back to the pot and add 6 cups of warm/hot water. Add chopped garlic and diced onions to the pot. Keep heat high enough that the beans cook at a rapid boil for about an hour or until the garbanzo beans are soft enough to be smooshed between your fingers easily.

When the garbanzo beans are finished cooking, put them in the blender until the beans turn into a smooth mixture. Turn off blender and add lemon juice, cayenne pepper, cumin and salt in the blender. Now turn it on to mix all the ingredients.

Scoop the homemade hummus into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup of diced onions on top and dip cucumber slices into it.

Optional additions to stir into the hummus after blended: 1/2 cup grated cheese, 1/4 cup black olives and 1/4 cup diced jalapeno peppers.