There are all kinds of “exotic” hummous about the place – caramelised onion, red pepper, chipotle and lime, cumin and coriandar etc.. and that’s just in our local supermarket. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great. But if it ain’t broke why fix it?!
That said, I’m always looking at ways to boost our vegetable consumption. I read somewhere that the “Five A Day” recommendation was mainly based on what it was felt the good people of Britain would be prepared to eat, rather than what would be best for them (somewhere closer to “Nine A Day” with a much heavier emphasis on veg than fruit). So, even though our children are pretty good about eating their veg, I still like to sneak extra veg into whatever I can. (We call it “Stealth Veg”.)
Butternut and chickpeas really work together – the earthy and the slightly sweet. I’ve been bunging them together in tagines for years (probably with inauthentic abandon – do gourds grow in North Africa?). Needless to say, they are awesome together in hummous.
- 1/2 a baked Butternut Squash, flesh*
- 400g Can Chickpeas in Water
- 1 tbsp Tahini paste
- 1 lemon, juice
- 1/2 tbsp (1 1/2 tsp) flaked salt or 1/2 tsp pouring salt (I used smoked Malden salt, my current obsession)
- 1 clove garlic (I only used 3 because of a local vampire infestation)
- 100 ml olive oil (extra virgin if you like to be able to taste it)
- Don’t drain the chickpeas – tip the whole lot into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 5-10 mins while you get everything else ready. (This softens the chickpeas so you end up with a softer more velvety hummous – even if you like it chunky, you still want the chunks to be quite soft.)
- Put all the other ingredients in the food processor, then drain the chickpeas.
- For smooth hummous, chuck the whole lot in. Blitz, scrape down the sides and blitz again. For chunky hummous, put half the chickpeas in initially. Blitz until smooth, then add the second half and pulse (scraping down the sides if necessary) until you have the desired texture.
- (If you don’t have a food processor, first crush the garlic and then place everything in a big flatbottomed dish or saucepan and use a potato masher – it’ll be chunky but no less delicious!)
- Because of the extra water content from the butternut and the warmth of the chickpeas, this hummous is quite loose if you use it immediately. If you want a firmer texture, cool and refrigerate for an hour or so first.
- Sprinkle with parsley or smoked paprika, drizzle with a little olive oil, and serve with pretty much anything you can dunk into it! (I like veg sticks or strips of toasted wholemeal pita, or in sandwiches for our sensory son.)
* Pierce a whole butternut in regular intervals all over the skin and bake in the oven at 180C for an hour and a half, by which time it will smell delicious. Leave to cool and then halve, deseed and scoop out the flesh. This is INFINITELY easier than peeling and deseeding it before cooking. Any spare flesh can be stored in the fridge or frozen until you need it – there’s a particularly tempting brownie recipie I’m longing to try … mmmm.
The Supper Mum 