I’ve discovered that hummus is a great snack to take with me to work.
I’m so busy with my job that it’s hard for me to get away from my desk to eat lunch. Add to that that my lunch is half an hour long; there are few restaurants within driving distance that would allow for you to drive there, eat and make it back within that half-hour timeframe; and trying to find a parking spot during the middle of the day is like trying to find a parking spot in the Pearl or Northwest at night or the East side of Milwaukee on the weekends and there’s little that inspires me to leave my desk during my ‘lunch.’
When I do leave my desk for ‘lunch’ it’s usually to grab a latte at the nearest Starbucks or local coffee shop. So it’s important for me to have something that’s easy to eat at my desk – while I work. Hummus and crackers have become my new work-day staple. (Along with bananas and peanut butter, oatmeal, coffee, coffee and more coffee).
I decided to make this recipe after I realized I had six jalapeños in the fridge that needed to be used. I was expecting a very spicy end-result. I did not get what I was expecting.
ingredients.
- 1 c. dried Cannelini beans
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 jalapeño peppers, chopped**
- ½ c. fresh cilantro leaves, plus additional T. (chopped) for garnish
- ¼ c. extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for drizzling
- 2 T. warm bean water
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 c. freshly grated medium cheddar cheese
directions.
- Soak the beans overnight. Drain and rinse the beans and put into a medium-sized saucepan. Add four cups of water and a teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer about one hour. Drain and rinse beans with cold water, reserving a bit of the bean water.
- Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender. Process or blend until smooth. Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with chopped cilantro before serving.
You will have to adjust the salt on this recipe to your liking. Instead of adding little by little I put in a tablespoon immediately. Though I love all things salty, the salt seemed a bit too much. I’d recommend a half teaspoon or teaspoon to start and then add more from there if you think it needs more.
**Despite the fact that I used six whole jalapeños, this dip has just a hint of spicy. I’ve had this conversation with both my sister and my coworker Casey – you never know what level of spiciness you’re going to get out of a pepper until you use it. Sometimes you need one really good spicy pepper in a recipe. Sometimes you can use six ho-hum peppers and get no spiciness.
If you don’t like spicy, I wouldn’t suggest using six jalapeño peppers in your hummus. Unless you’re buying them from Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s jalapeños seem to be more miss than hit in the spicy department.
I can’t say this hummus has a lot of flavor – my sister agreed – but do jalapeños actually have flavor or just heat? I’d have to test this recipe again with jalapeños from a different vendor in order to find out, I suppose.
After I left the dip in the fridge for a day or so the flavors seemed to meld together better and the salty taste toned down (thank God). The jalapeño flavor seemed more prevalent, though I can’t say the level of heat changed in any significant way.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 