HUMMUS!

I have a serious addiction to hummus!  I love it plain, with sun dried tomatoes, with avocados, with roasted red peppers, with artichokes and spinach...you get the idea.  Today I decided to make two flavors I've never had before.  Drum roll..........

CREAMY RANCH AND BEET!

I love ranch dressing but my waistline does not!  What could be better than creamy ranch hummus?!?  It's thick enough to dip or spread on a sandwich and if you add a little milk it becomes an actual salad dressing.  Salad dressing with PROTEIN, who would have thunk it?

BIG RED was ready for the day!  And yes I do have an abnormal passion for my food processor.

  First up I rounded up the necessary items.

Garlic goes in first and gets whirred until finely chopped.

  
Follow the garlic with chick peas (garbanzo beans), 1 can drained (save the "bean water" for later), and 1/4 to 1/3 cup of tahini paste.

 Next I added the dried herbs, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp dried dill, 1 tsp dried parsley flakes, 1/4 tsp dried oregano and dried basil.  And finally about 3-4 Tbs of olive oil and the juice of 1/2 of a lemon.

Take all of this for a spin in the food processor or blender.  I watch the consistency and add the bean water until the consistency is where I want it.  If you want you can add salt and pepper also.

Once I get to a hummus that is about right I added 2 heaping tablespoons of fat free Greek yogurt.  The Greek yogurt gives it the tang of buttermilk but maintains the hummus consistency.

Once the yogurt is mixed in you will have a creamy and dreamy hummus.

And now for the one that when I showed the hubs he said "Yuck, how can you eat yuck?"

Beet Hummus

I love beets and I thought that adding them to my hummus base would be yummy!

Everything ready to go.

Again the garlic goes in and takes a spin.  Then I added the chick peas, tahini and 2 medium roasted beets. I had to open a new jar of tahini, make sure when you open a new jar you mix it really well.

Finished off with a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme from the garden (yes my thyme and rosemary are still alive, yippee!)  I then added two pinches of kosher salt and a pinch of black pepper.  I actually have measuring spoons for that...LOL!

And the glorious finished product.  The hubs said that it even smelled like beets, well that's the idea isn't it?

It is a fabulous purple/pink color, closer to the top picture than the bottom.

Eat well my friends.