I really love hummus, it’s just great, so tasty, so versatile, you can have it for breakfast on a piece of toasted brown bread, as a snack with some vegtable sticks, in a sandwich on a salad, I could go on……. I make it all the time, it’s just a great protein rich go to food.
So what’s so great about chickpeas? Well, everything! They are a great source of both soluble and insoluble fibre which is good for digestion and your heart. Also good for stabilising blood sugars. Combined with a piece of brown bread they are comparable to meat in levels of protein making them an awesome source of protein without the saturated fat. They contain super beneficial levels of manganese which is a mineral needed for energy production and immune defence, I’ll take all the energy I can get, thanks! And iron which we need adequate amounts of in order to carry oxygen around our bodies. So those are just some of the benefits, what are the down sides, none! Not that I could find any way.
Obviously variety in the diet is hugely important not just for our tastebuds also for happy functioning of all the body systems,which is why I know I’ve already posted a hummus recipe here before but this one is pretty amazing so I just had to share. I got really into sprouting starting about two years ago, sprouted seeds, nuts, beans etc. are loaded with even more nutrients than there dormant versions and raw food is fantastic as it retains all nutrients that can be lost through cooking. So, I thought how fabulous would it be to make hummus that contains all the nutrients and flavours of the raw sprouted chickpea. What is also cool is that I wouldn’t have to spend all that time waiting for the chickpeas to boil, which is also a nice way to save energy, though you do have to wait for them to sprout. They pretty much do all the work for you though, win!
Okay so here is how;
Soak your dry (not canned, that won’t work, haha) chickpeas, overnight is perfect. Than place them in a jar with some air holes/sprouting dish. Rinse daily. They start coming to life and sprouting shoots really quick, say two to three days. Day four or five they should look like this.
Great that was the hard part, now what you need;
2-3 cloves of garlic or a bunch of wild garlic leaves(I like it really garlicky, so tone it don’t or spice it up as you please)
200g of sprouted chickpea
3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
Pitch of salt I use Himalayan pink salt (just to be fancy)
1/2 a juicy lemon or more if you like it lemony
I tablespoon of tahini or toast up some sesame seeds this also tastes great.
How?
Place all your ingredients into a container/ blending dish. I’ve got this great container I can blend stuff in and it comes with a lid, that way I don’t loose anything when transferring for storage. Blend away, make it as chunky or smooth as you like.
It’s so good the flavour of the raw chickpeas gives it that extra freshness that makes it so tasty!
Enjoy!