Holiday Hummus

By Nancy Berkoff, RD, EdD

Hummus is an incredibly popular Middle Eastern dip and spread. The traditional ingredients include cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans), tahini paste (ground sesame seeds), olive oil, lemon juice and minced garlic. The ingredients are whirled in a blender or food processor until creamy, drizzled with additional olive oil and enjoyed.

How many dips can say they are on the healthy side? Hummus provides a wide variety of vitamins and minerals, including manganese, copper, folate, thiamin, zinc and iron, fiber, small protein.

Depending on the proportion of oil and extra ingredients added, about two tablespoons of hummus have approximately seventy calories, five grams of (unsaturated, cholesterol-free) fat, two grams of protein and about two grams of fiber. Again, depending on additional ingredients included, hummus is gluten, soy, nut and dairy-free and is more nutrient-dense than peanut butter.

Just as a comparison, two tablespoons of peanut butter has about 180 calories, sixteen grams of fat and one gram of fiber. Depending on additional ingredients, gluten, soy, nut, dairy free. More nutrient-dense than peanut butter.

If you would like to stay with the traditional chickpeas-olive oil-tahini-garlic humus, you might add a bit of “jazz” with finely chopped parsley, minced fresh cucumbers or tomatoes.

If you have the time, and a blender, you might consider creating your own hummus. Tahini paste is available in most grocery stores and online. A little tahini goes a long way, so store, tightly sealed, in a cool area of the pantry or in the refrigerator. You may find that you’ll add tahini to some of your cooking creations, including sauces and salad dressings. Although you didn’t hear it here, peanut butter is sometimes used when tahini is not available.

If you just don’t have the time to make your own hummus, opt for store-bought that is made with olive oil, rather than other vegetable oils, and has a limited number of preservatives and other food additives.

Not for the humus purist, but you can add ingredients to your basic hummus, to the point where you won’t need any other dips, as you’ll have a variety of colors and flavors.

To either your homemade or store-bought traditional hummus adds the following:

 For roasted red pepper humus: add some crushed garbanzos, for texture, and minced pimentos or roasted red peppers and cumin

For roasted beet humus: add pine nuts, lemon juice and diced roasted beets, puree and chill until ready to serve. Roasting beets is easy: scrub beets, preheat oven to 400 degrees F, wrap beets in foil and allow baking in the oven until soft enough to mash or puree

For pesto humus: blend a small amount of your favorite pesto sauce into your traditional hummus. Add pureed spinach or fresh basil for more texture and color

For a curried garlic hummus, add minced garlic along with your favorite curry powder or paste and blend to combine flavors

If you’d really like to go over the top, try a dessert hummus

Roasted sweet potato and raisin hummus: roast and peel sweet potatoes. Mash and blend into hummus, using raisins as a garnish. If you like, you can use honey or maple syrup as a sweetener.

Chocolate hummus (really, it’s a thing!) Add cocoa powder, maple syrup, a splash of dairy or almond milk and mini chocolate chips to traditional humus and chill. People tell us this takes like brownie batter.

While we are getting culinary creative, we should think about baking up veggie chips to complement the holiday hummus. This is a relatively easy job.

Scrub and peel veggies and allow to dry. Slice veggies very thinly, preheat oven to 425 F. Spray a baking sheet with oil, place veggies in a single layer and allow to bake until crispy.

If you would like you can sprinkle on seasonings, such as garlic or onion powder, white pepper, dried parsley or herb mixtures, remembering to leave a portion of the chips unseasoned so that guests can fully experience the hummus flavors. White, gold, purple potato, sweet potato, plantain, carrots, kale, beets, green apples (leave the peel on) and persimmons make good chips.

Please email Nancy at foodprof2@gmail.com, with questions or thoughts for upcoming columns.

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