Hummus
I made some Middle Eastern Tabouleh salad today and wanted a bit of hummus to go along with it. Being made from basically chickpeas, this is far from a low-carbers “safe” food to eat. But I recently I saw on another WordPress blog (Cavewomancafe) that cauliflower can be used to make hummus, so I decided to take my recipe of many years and try it. I really wanted to add a few chick peas just for the flavor boost, but discovered I didn’t have any among my canned goods or in the freezer either. I thought a moment and remembered I have chickpea flour in my pantry. After all, it’s made from finely ground chickpeas, non? Hmmmm…..Why not? So I whipped up a batch of my regular hummus recipe, subbing cauliflower for chick peas, guessing how much chickpea flour to put in the mix. Man, this came out not just good, it was to die for! I honestly couldn’t really tell it apart from the carb-laden variety made with all chickpeas! This recipe is not suitable until the legumes rung of the OWL ladder. The bread sticks pictured are made from 1 slice of my now favorite focaccia bread:
http://low-carb-news.blogspot.com/2011/04/foccacia-bread-gf.html
One added note, when I make this focaccia bread recipe, I substitute ½ c. Carbquick for the ½ c. almond flour in her original recipe.
NOTE: This is not so great leftover (cauliflower taste comes through much stronger, and it got almost “hot” like a very old turnip) so only make as much as will be consumed completely the day it is made.
INGREDIENTS:
16 oz. cauliflower
2 T. tahini paste (sesame seed butter)
2 T. chickpea flour (or ¼ cooked chickpeas mashed up)
1 T. fresh lemon juice
½ clove garlic, minced
dash salt
1 T. olive oil (for the hummus mixture)
¼ c. olive oil for top garnish
Dash paprika for garnish
parsley sprig to garnish (optional)
DIRECTIONS: Steam cauliflower over boiling water until tender. Lift out of pot and put into food processor. Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT the ¼ c. olive oil, paprika and parsley sprig. Blend until smooth. Scrape out onto serving dish. Sprinkle with paprika. Drizzle with ¼ c. olive oil, allowing some to pool around the edges. Garnish with sprig of parsley (or chopped) and serve with your favorite low-carb focaccia bread or crackers. I personally love this stuff best when served with Tabouleh salad and Greek olives, as they are wonderful together!
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 5 servings, each containing:
196 calories
17.76 g fat
8.04 g carbs, 3.16 g fiber, 4.88 g NET CARBS
3.46 g protein
70% RDA Vitamin C, 18% B6, 16% E, 20% copper, 16% iron, 18% manganese, 15% phosphorous, and 14% thiamin
So what are you using as scoops for the hummus? Those look like breadsticks – are they made with your Quick Bread recipe?
The bread in the pic is 100% Jennifer Eloff’s focaccia bread recipe I stumbled on this week: http://low-carb-news.blogspot.com/2011/04/foccacia-bread-gf.html. It’s very good indeed! I do substitute 1/2 c. Carbquick for the 1/2 c. almond flour when I make it, however.