We all have those gateway foods. We eat them and they make us want to eat other foods that make us feel guilty or we eat them with something else that again, makes up feel guilty. I remember listening to Alton Brown talking about why he had to give up milk. He said that milk would make him want other things, like cookies or other fattening sweets. So, in order to make a healthy change in his life, he gave it up.
Before I started focusing more on my health, hummus was one of my gateway foods. It was a dangerous combination of dip (which I love) and crackers (one of my food Achilles’ heels…). People I was with offered crackers with it, and in about 20-30 minutes, we had all devoured the container of hummus and had eaten so many crackers in the process. And that was an pre-dinner snack! Yikes, yikes, yikes. I chose to stop eating hummus because I knew it would lead to eating too many delicious (yet fattening, boo) crackers consumed.
A few weeks ago, I bought one of my favorite hummuses, but for some divine reason, I bought baby carrots with it instead. And it was wonderful! Less guilt, more veggies, more delicious hummus! Win, win, win for everybody! I started bringing the combination to work to snack on (since my work is stocked with candy and one of my carb weaknesses, pretzels) and soon, I ran out of the container of hummus.
Rather than start buying the pricey (yet delicious) hummus again, the little red hen in me said, Let’s make it yourself! After some recipe experimentation, some okay, but not OMG great hummus, I present to you one of my favorite hummus recipes. It’s different than your usual hummus recipe because my favorite hummus is thicker than most and doesn’t have tahini in it. Enjoy it and think about your gateway foods. Can you tweak something to your old routine to bring it back? Swap in some veggies? Make a lighter version?
Ingredients
- 10-12 jalapenos
- 2 15oz cans of garbanzo beans, drained
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 2-5 tbsp of olive oil
- 1/2 tsp of salt, more to taste
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- juice of a one lemon
Instructions
Wash and dry your jalapenos. Roast your jalapenos. There are two ways to do this: over your gas stove or in the oven.
Over your gas stove: Remove the burner grate from your burner. Put a jalapeno on a stainless steel kitchen fork (not a regular fork). Put the heat on high, and hold the jalapeno over the flame until that side turns black. Repeat this campfire process until all sides are black. Place in a bowl. Once you've roasted all of the jalapenos, take a paper towel or dish towel and rub the charred skin off the jalapeno. Then remove the stem and the seeds and chop into halves or quarters
In the oven: Turn on the broiler and move your oven rack to position closest to your broiler. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Remove stems and seeds from your jalapenos. Slice the jalapenos vertically in halves or quarters and place them skin side up on the baking sheet. Roast the peppers for 3-5 minutes until black. Once black, remove from oven and into a bowl. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and let steam for 5-10 minutes. Once steamed, take a paper towel or dish towel and rub the skin off the jalapeno.
Place roasted jalapenos in food processor. Add drained garbanzo beans, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. Run the food processor. As it runs, add the olive oil. Once combined, taste the hummus and add more olive oil or salt, to your taste.
Store in refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Notes
Oven roasting jalapeno method from The Shiksa in the Kitchen