a simple real food recipe :: hummus and batch cooking garbanzos

Hummus is a fantastic way to get protein and friendly fats in your diet. We typically enjoy hummus as a veggie dip, on a thick tomato slices, or spread on flax bread for a sandwich with sprouts and tomatoes. It is super easy to pack for day trips, school days, or work days. Delicious!

You only need a few simple and very cheap ingredients to make great hummus.  I paid $2.31 for this pound of garbanzo beans (the bean that makes up hummus – also called chickpeas), and it made 4 PINTS of hummus. Include the other minimal ingredients in this homemade hummus and you will pay around $1 for a whole pint (16 oz) of hummus – a jar of just under a pint (13 oz) of hummus at our store cost $3.07. You are also skipping out on the preservatives and, in some cases, MSG by making your own.

I soak and cook beans in big batches – that way I can store them in “can sized” portions for easy use in recipes. Soaking beans 12 hours and even going a couple days of rinsing them 0ut until they sprout a little will make them digest better and cook faster. It reduces the phytic acid that irritates the gut – your beans will not be “gassy” when you soak properly.  Soaking also allows the nutrients in the beans more available to digest. Canned beans are fine if you are “not there yet”…but you most likely will have the gassy effects, they are more expensive, and I haven’t found a brand that doesn’t have cans lined with BPA that will leach into your beans. Even organic brands.

Here is what I got out of the $2.31 pound of garbanzo beans. I made up one pint of hummus right away and froze the other 3 batches of beans. One store bought can of beans is about 1 ½ cups of beans – so my recipe uses 1 ½ cups of beans, and then I stored the other 3 “cans” in sandwich bags that will go in a large freezer bag, and lay flat in my freezer. It is easier to organize and I re-use the large freezer bag the next time I make more “cans” of garbanzos. I freeze them in “can” sized portions so that if I decide to use the beans for something other than hummus in a recipe that calls for a can of beans, I have the perfect portion.

SOAK/SPROUT AND COOK BEANS:

1. Cover your beans in water a few inches above the beans. Set the pot of water and beans under the oven light in your oven.
2. After 12 hours of soaking, drain and rinse your beans. If you are going to let them sprout return them to the pot without water. Rinse them a couple times a day for a day or 2 and you’ll see them sprout. Keeping the beans under the warm light in your oven – they will sprout much faster – within 24 or so hours.
3. After you soak and/or sprout, put the beans in a big pot and cover with water or homemade chicken stock. I typically add at least a quart of stock and fill the rest with water.
4. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. With the lid on, cook until beans are bite tender. Can take a good hour or two.
5. Whatever you don’t use in a recipe at that point you may freeze up to 6 months in your freezer.

And here’s how we roll with the hummus! Feel free to play with the flavors to your family’s tastes! I usually don’t measure, although I did for this batch so I could give you an idea of what I do – I just find it goes faster if I do palm-fulls, squirts, and scoops! Ha!

HUMMUS:

1 ½ cup cooked garbanzo beans (or 1 can)
2 TB real lemon juice (not from concentrate)
½ cup water
¼ cup tahini (This is sesame paste/butter. Most of the time it is cheapest for me at the health food store.)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 ½ tsp minced garlic (1-2 cloves)

1. Blend it all up to your desired smoothness. All I have is a mini prep food processor – works great for these kind of things! That’s it!
2. Store in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.

YOUR TURN!

Do your kids take hummus in their school lunches, or do you think they would? How do you like to serve hummus? Let me know what you think of the recipe if you try it!

This post was shared at Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday, and The Polikva Family’s Family Table Tuesday!