Quick and Easy Hummus (Momentum 1; PointsPlus 2)

I’ll go for long periods of time not even thinking about hummus, but as soon as someone says the word, I start craving it.  What’s not to love…a lightly flavored bean blended into a rich creamy dip, with whatever add-in you’d like.

It’s cheap…perhaps .89 per can of chickpeas.

It’s low-fat…at most 3 grams of fat for the whole can.

It’s low-carb…only 15 or so complex carbs per serving…that’s one of four complex carb servings for your day.

NOTE: the above three statements are decidedly NOT TRUE about store-bought hummus.

And it’s soooooooooo simple.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of garbanzo beans (or chickpeas), with juice drained into a cup or container
• 2-3 roasted garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Dump all of the ingredients into your food processor or blender; doesn’t really matter which you use, but I happen to prefer the food processor. Blend until the mixture gums up and sticks to the sides of the processor.

Pop the lid off and scrape down the sides. Then blend again, this time adding about half of the juice from the beans (about 1 cup).

Pop the lid off again and see where you are. At this point, your hummus is pretty well blended for flavor, but a little thick and textured. If this is how you like it, you’re done.

If you want a thinner, smoother hummus, blend some more, adding more of the juice, but much more slowly. It won’t take much now to thin and smooth. For this batch, I added about 1/2 cup more juice, and my hummus slides nicely off of a spoon, but in a “scoop”. You can also test with the chip you plan to eat it with; I can easily load up a bagel chip with some of the hummus hanging but not dripping off of the side.

Now, sure, you could go all authentic on me and insist on tahini and olive oil as essential ingredients. Unless you are looking for the nutty flavor from the tahini and you find that using the liquid from your beans doesn’t get your hummus smooth and loose enough, then fine, insist on tahini and olive oil and call mine bean dip. But if you add those two ingredients, be sure to account for the added fat and carbohydrates WITHOUT a balance of fiber and protein.

Momentum Points = 1 point per half cup serving

PointsPlus = 2 points per half cup serving

NOTE: Store-bought hummus is on average 1 point per tablespoon of hummus, which would be 8 points for the equivalent 1/2 cup serving.

The plated picture shows a single 2 oz serving of homemade bagel chips, for a Momentum 4-point snack or a PointsPlus 6-point snack.

Alternate 0-point flavorings: 1 can of artichokes, 1 package fresh or thawed frozen spinach, 1 package thawed frozen asparagus, 1 jar roasted red peppers, 6-8 cloves roasted garlic, 2 fresh roasted tomatoes, handful of fresh basil, crushed red pepper,

Alternate 1-point flavorings: 1 oz olives, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1/4 cup reduced fat feta cheese, 1 tblsp sugar (with cinnamon, clove,  nutmeg, ginger) for a sweeter option