Recipe: Chipotle Guacamole Hummus

So I fell in love with guacamole hummus but at $3.75 for only a couple of ounces of the stuff, I decided to save money by making up some of my own.  Here’s the approximate recipe of what I used.  I used another recipe as a guideline of what basic ingredients to use but adapted the quantities on my own.  This makes a LARGE batch (a few cups worth at least) so its perfect for a party or potluck.

Chipotle Guacamole Hummus

2 cans of chickpeas (garbonzo beans), drained and well rinsed (or if you avoid canned goods, you can cook up your own chickpeas but this is something you’d need to do ahead of time)

2 large cloves of garlic (or more if you’re a garlic nut)

4 medium sized Hass avocados or 2 large ones, (the more ripe the better the flavor)

2 bunches (about 3 cups) of cilantro (you can leave this out if you’re not a cilantro person or sub with fresh italian parsley)

Juice of two limes or 1 lemon

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp tahini (you can leave this out but I think it tastes better with it)

kosher or sea salt to taste

fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

ground chipotle powder, to taste (add more to make spicier.  Or sub with red pepper flakes or a fresh hot pepper of your choice, seeded)

water

So the first thing you want to do is bust out a food processor.  Make sure you’re using your blade that kind of looks like an “S”.   This makes whipping this yummy goodness up nice and easy.   You could use a blender or a potato masher but I don’t think a blender would work as well and a potato masher requires a bit more time and elbow grease.  Also, I like a creamier hummus, so the food processor works great for me.

Into the processor, dump your garlic first, and let the processor do the work of mincing the stuff up.  Once you have your garlicky goodness all minced, add your chickpeas and avocado.  I found that the softer avocado not only tastes better but doesn’t require being cut into chunks before adding.  It’s soft enough it blends like a dream.  Run your food processor to get a good blend started on these ingredients.  While you let the food processor do its thing, run a knife through the cilantro a bit, so that it mixes better in the food processor.  This is a MUST because otherwise getting the processor to cut it properly is a PAIN.  It usually ends up stuck around the center and not cut at all.  Add it to the mixture in the processor and let it blend some more.

Now while your processor is running, pull the stopper thing out of the veggie shoot.  Drop down into the mixture your oil, lime juice, salt, black pepper, chipotle powder and the tahini.  I BEGGGG you to not use table salt for this recipe.  Most table salt has iodine and a weird metallic taste to it.  Even the table salt that doesn’t have iodine in it has that weird taste to it.  Kosher or sea salt is definitely the way to go.  You can do more or less tahini depending on how much sesame seed flavor you want in your hummus.  I like just a slight bit of the flavor which is why I only add a couple tablespoons but if you want more flavor, add more tahini.  Just make sure that the tahini is really well stirred before adding it.

Now here’s the tricky part.  The mixture is going to be thick.  You’re going to need to pull the lid of the processor a few times and scrape your sides with a rubber spatula to get it to mix well.  I actually did this every time I had to take the lid off to add ingredients.  Now, depending on how smooth you like your hummus, you can add water.  I prefer the water because it helps to thin it out enough that it is well blended.  You could use oil or tahini to do this but in an effort to save on the calories, I chose to use water.   Once its well blended, you can dump it into a bowl from the processor, mix in diced tomatoes if you want (I skipped them) and garnish with a sprig of cilantro or parsley, a fancy cut slice of lime or lemon and serve.

The avocado does add fat but its a fairly healthy fat, all things considered.  The tahini and the olive oil also add fat and if you like, you can omit these items, but the flavor does change a little.

This is a yummy recipe that goes well with melba toasts, chips of any kind, pita bread or pita chips and even a veggie tray.  I encourage you to experiment with the base ingredients, trying new things.  Swap out the avocado and cilantro for black beans, add more garlic, use sun dried tomatoes instead.  The possibilities are endless and so are the wonderful flavor combinations you can come up with.

The best part about hummus?  Its easy to make vegan and gluten free so it is a great substitute for other condiments that are not friendly to vegans or those who are gluten free.

-Sarah

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