My New Favorite White Bean Hummus

Two months from today we'll be leaving Morocco to spend some time in the States. Two months! Words cannot accurately describe how great this concept is: a vacation that involves peace and quiet, green space, good coffee, bagels with cream cheese, all the little organic vegetarian stuff I so love, burritos ... we'll have to soak it up as much as possible for the brief time we're there. Three months from today my cookbook will be released, which both thrills and terrifies me. It's all good stuff, and it's all coming up, though just a tad too slowly for my liking.

But anyway, to temper my impatience there is good (homemade) bread and cheese and this white bean spread/dip/hummus I can't stop making. Lately it's been inexplicably impossible to find canned chickpeas - and I haven't gotten my act together enough to make them from dried, not to mention that the quality of the dried beans is not, how do you say, awesome, and yes I do miss Rancho Gordo or even just the plain old American brand at Safeway - so I've been using canned white beans with good results.

I may go so far as to say that this is the best! way to make hummus ever! except that I guess it's not technically hummus, which is made with chickpeas (Side note: wikipedia is INCORRECT when it states that hummus is 'popular' in N. Africa, specially singling out Morocco, because I have yet to see it on a menu anywhere nor do I think it really exists outside of the few Lebanese restaurants here in Casa. Which is another reason why I'm making my own.). But it's the proportions here which are key, and no matter if you use white beans or chickpeas I entreat you to keep them the same. There's a good amount of lemon juice balanced against a very goodly amount of tahini (again I give thanks for the DPO shipping rate), with a bit of garlic and salt to turn what are pretty basic/bland beans into something that's imminently spoonable. Or scoopable, whatever you prefer.

I know I prefer it at least 2x/week, sometimes on crackers, sometimes on rice cakes, sometimes with carrot sticks ... you get the idea. Get to it.

Today's post is exceedingly short because someone woke up earlier than usual this morning and I worked a full day and consequently am a bit brain-tired to the point where all I can really think about is California in two months; cornbread and vegetable soup for dinner; make this white bean hummus soon, all, you won't regret it.

[print_this]White Bean Hummus

Sub the equivalent amount of chickpeas here to make a more hummusy hummus, or double the recipe if you like (I advise this). If you use beans that were previously dried, it's about 1 ½-2 cups beans that you'll need for the recipe.

¼ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup tahini
3 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 can (15 oz.) white beans

In a food processor, blend together the lemon juice and tahini until smooth. Add the garlic, salt, olive oil, and half of the beans and blend until smooth. Add the rest of the beans plus a dash of water and blend until very smooth, adding more water if like. [/print_this]