Pumpkin Hummus with Honey ♥

Today's healthy hummus recipe: A traditional chickpea hummus, turned pretty and slightly sweet with pumpkin and a drizzle of honey. Weight Watchers Friendly. Easily adapted to vegan.

Once upon a time, back BFB (before Facebook), back BiP (before iPhones, iPads and iLives), there was a food blog which published one hummus recipe after another. Week in, week out, hummus and more hummus and still more hummus. I've lost track of the blog but at the time, I wondered, Who can eat so much hummus?

I'm here to say: it happens! A couple of months back, a Syrian restaurant opened nearby. Their hummus is so creamy-dreamy, I don't want to know how much olive oil it takes to achieve ethereal dimensions.

So last week I set out to use up some of that kabocha squash "pumpkin" I've been roasting. (See Homemade Kabocha Squash "Pumpkin" Purée from Kitchen Parade, my food column.) Hummus came to mind – especially because the textures of roasted pumpkin and puréed garbanzo beans are so similar. Could I actually make a low-cal hummus?

Turns out, I could! I skipped the oil entirely, using lemon and lime juice to thin the hummus mixture to the right texture. And then, in a stroke of inspiration if I may say so myself, instead of drizzling a little olive oil over the hummus, I used a little honey.

Brilliant! Thanks to the pumpkin, the hummus was already a tiny bit sweeter than usual – not "sweet" mind you, but a little sweeter – and the honey just gilded the lily.

Setting aside one tradition after another, I served Pumpkin Hummus with Honey not with pita bread but Pumpkin Corn Bread.

WORD TO THE WISE If you're happy with store-bought hummus, don't start making hummus from scratch. You'll never go back. That said, just think how much happier you might be with hummus that you make and play with yourself. Like Pumpkin Hummus with Honey!

TAKING HUMMUS TO ANOTHER LEVEL! Hummus made at home turns soooo smooth and soooo creamy when you start with dried chickpeas instead of canned chickpeas and cook them with baking soda. It's totally worth the effort! Check out How to Cook Dried Chickpeas Especially for Hummus aka "Jerusalem Chickpeas", you'll end up with the equivalent of four cans of chickpeas. Yes, they freeze!

COMPLIMENTS!
"... soooo yummy! made a double recipe for us hummus addicts. wasn't sure if my middle eastern-american husband would like it but he kept eating it by the spoonful!" ~ Anonymous

RECIPE for PUMPKIN HUMMUS with HONEY

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 10 minutes
Makes 2 cups

1 16-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
1 cup (200g) cooked pumpkin (see notes)
4 tablespoons (55g) tahini
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (or lemon), plus more for thinning
1 teaspoon cumin
Salt & pepper to taste

TO SERVE
A few garbanzo beans
A sprinkle of sumac (see notes) or Spanish paprika or chipotle
A drizzle of honey or agave (for vegan)

If you like, set aside a few garbanzo beans for garnishing the hummus plate. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor (see TIPS). If the mixture is thick, add additional lemon juice to thin a little.

TO SERVE Arrange a big swirl of the hummus in a flat bowl, leaving a depression in the center. Scatter a few garbanzo beans over top, then a sprinkle of sumac. Drizzle with honey.

ALANNA's TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
CANNED CHICKPEAS A standard can of chickpeas weighs in between 15 and 16 ounces. Once you drain away all the salty gunk? You're down to just 9.5 ounces or 271g. (And the Nutrition Information for Pumpkin Hummus accounts for that.) That said, don't drain away all that gunk, save it as aquafaba!
PUMPKIN For pumpkin, I used Homemade Kabocha Squash "Pumpkin" Purée. Canned pumpkin would work fine but I'd drain it first.
SUMAC What is sumac? See the notes in Fattoush (Traditional Middle Eastern Salad).)
LEMON JUICE I used lemon juice and lime juice to thin the hummus a little, typically this is done with olive oil but I really like the brightness of this hummus. A little oil wouldn't hurt – but I wanted to see how the hummus would go over without it. It went great!

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per 1/4 Cup: 96 Calories; 4g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 177mg Sodium; 13g Carb; 2g Fiber; NetCarb11; 2g Sugar; 3g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS: WW Old Points 2 & WW PointsPlus 2 & WW SmartPoints 3 & WW Freestyle 2

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MORE FAVORITE HUMMUS RECIPES

~ Cauliflower Hummus ~
~ Lima Bean Hummus ~
~ Eggplant Sandwiches with Cilantro Hummus ~
~ more recipes with beans, lentils & other legumes ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Simple Hummus ~
~ more recipes for canned & dried beans ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column

JUST LAST WEEK

KITCHEN PARADE Homemade Kabocha Squash "Pumpkin" Purée

St. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Red Pepper Hummus from PW Pizza (See? It's everywhere!)

EAT VEGETABLES IN SEASON: THIS WEEK, ACROSS THE YEARS

Greens & Stems with Mustard Pumpkin Dip Carrots with Honey & Vinegar Squash & Pear Soup Slow-Roasted Tomato Soup Broccoli with Fennel Food Blogging in the Real World Braised Cauliflower with Curry & Yogurt Butternut Squash with Maple Glaze Spicy Sweet Pumpkin Seeds Microwave Baked Potato Sweet 'n' Sour Cabbage Whole Pumpkin Baked with Custard Pumpkin Dip Roasted Garlic Soup Pumpkin Hummus with Honey Baked Oatmeal with Pumpkin & Pears Whole-Grain Salad with Beets, Beans & Corn Baked Pumpkin Donuts & Donut Holes Creamy Pumpkin Steel-Cut Oats (< just look at all these pumpkin recipes!)

A Veggie Venture is home of newly minted hummus fanatic and "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the
famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.
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