Hummus & Other Bean Dips + how not to tell lies!

Following my previous post I was having a chat with a FB friend of mine, Marcus, waxing lyrical about lovely black garlic. He suggested adding some to hummus which inspired my sudden lunch using up some leftover white beans.

I puréed together 90g of leftover white beans, 30ml olive oil and 3 cloves of black garlic and seasoned the result, being particularly generous with black pepper and here it is with an entirely appropriate balsamic glaze drizzle.

Incidentally I should like to draw your attention to the lettuce in this picture, it is 5 days past its best before date and doing most awfully well, don’t you think? Crispy and fresh and yummy.

Hummus-like dishes are a great way of using up all kinds of leftover legumes but it is just not right to actually call all these dips, spreads and purées “hummus” as this means chickpea in Arabic (حمّص) so you would be lying.

Basic Guidelines for a Bean Dip

1 tin beans of your choice, drained (possibly keeping the juices - see below) and rinsed

OR equivalent in cooked beans – about 200g
2, 3, 4 or so cloves of garlic in some form or another ***
4 tablespoons cooking liquid, stock or liquid from the 
can (if it tastes good)
2 tablespoons good tasty olive oil
seasoning - salt and pepper plus chilli powder, cumin, smoked paprika, za'tar or 
whatever you fancy

~   Put the beans plus other flavourings (garlic, herbs, spices, cooked vegetables etc.) into your food processor or liquidiser.
~   Run the processor whilst drizzling in your choice of liquid and oil to achieve a smooth (or chunky if you prefer!) purée.
~   Taste and season.

You can, of course, change the ratio of cooking liquid/olive oil to taste.

*** Of course all bean purées are the better for garlic in some form or other; fresh, smoked, black, roasted or wild garlic (coming soon – yippee!) prepare as appropriate eg. crush fresh garlic, squeeze roasted garlic, finely chop wild garlic, etc.

Bespoke Suggestions for different beans …

~   Chickpeas (حمّص) – adding tahini will entitle you to call the dish Hummus bi Tahini, you need about 80g tablespoons tahini per 200g chickpeas, plus garlic, olive oil and about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Other tasty additions are a little yogurt, harissa, cumin and other Middle Eastern flavours. Serve with pita chips. Just for old times’ sake here is a picture of my roasted garlic hummus with black olive salad as I used to serve it at the Tamarind Club in Tortola years ago (and I think they still do).

~   White Beans/Cannellini Beans go particularly well with lemon juice, olive oil. black pepper, cayenne and fresh tasting herbs.

~   Black Beans, being used a lot in Latin America, are good with fresh garlic, chilli (smoky chipotle is nice), fresh coriander, cumin, lime juice, Serve with tortilla chips to continue the theme.
~   Kidney Beans also have Latin American associations so add cumin, chilli, lemon or lime, a little tomato past perhaps, fresh coriander and so on.

Cooked Fresh Peas and Beans can also be used this way …

~   Broad Beans go well with bacon fat instead of olive oil plus bits of bacon and also with dill.
~   Peas are good with mint, of course, spring onions, crème fraîche.

~   Edamame like lemon or lime and maybe a little wasabi paste.

Try different herbs, different spices, yogurt or mayo or cream cheese, sour cream etc. 

Add roasted vegetables such as carrots, beetroot, fennel or red pepper (very pretty) or try caramelised onions - just add them when puréeing the beans. 

Add texture by folding in chopped nuts, crispy fried onions, seeds, a few whole beans, etc. as the mood takes you.

In Other News …

I just made, and ate, this ... 

Easy Salted Caramel Sorbet 

250g sugar
570ml water
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ - ½ tsp sea salt

~   Put the sugar into a heavy bottomed pan together with about 100ml of the water.
~   Set the rest of the water immediately next to the stove.
~   Stir together the sugar and water over low heat till the sugar has dissolved then turn up the heat and stop stirring! You can swirl the pan a little in a careful sort of way but more stirring will encourage crystals to form which we don’t want.
~   Watch carefully and when the syrup reaches a rich deep reddish brown quickly, carefully and at arm’s length pour in the rest of the water. The syrup will solidify somewhat in the cold water so stir it over low heat till it melts again.
~   Add vanilla and salt.

~   Cool then chill completely and run through ice cream machine or just freeze, mashing it every now and then to smooth out the ice crystals.  

The pink stuff in the background is Himalayan pink salt which my friend Carol gave me and which I used in the sorbet.

I have written a little ebook "Sorbets & Granitas" giving one "genius" recipe with 40+ sorbet and granita recipes including both cocktail sorbets and sorbet cocktails plus tips and guidelines, serving suggestions and what to do with leftovers!