Wednesday, January 25, 2012

It would be a crime to keep this to myself!

Oh.my.goodness.  I would like to take a minute to thank my lucky stars for stumbling across the following recipe for Sweet Potato Hummus.  Now, all you sweet potater-haters, stay with me...you'll be glad you did!


One of my favorite websites to visit is Tastespotting, an amazing "visual potluck" that displays pages upon pages of images of food.  Each image is linked to a blog or website that (usually) contains the recipe.  If you recall from my first blog post, two of my biggest interests are food and photography...so this website was definitely made for me!  Anyway, I have been bookmarking recipes that I want to make from Tastespotting and Sweet Potato Hummus was one of these recipes.  I have had a few sweet potatoes hanging around for a while (an unrealized intention of making sweet potato chips) so this drove my movement to making the hummus.  A quick trip to Whole Foods for tahini (sesame seed paste, probably can be found at other specialty/organic/hippie grocery stores) and it was on!

The recipe involves baking and cooling the sweet potatoes, which adds about 50-60 minutes to the preparation time (45 minutes of baking plus time for oven pre-heating).  Otherwise, this is a very quick and simple recipe...just add the ingredients to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.

Sweet Potato Hummus


Sweet Potato Hummus (recipe from The Novice Chef)
2 medium sweet potatoes*
7.5 oz canned chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 tsp minced garlic or 3 small cloves of garlic
2 tbsp tahini
1/2 medium lemon,  juiced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 heaping tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ancho chili pepper
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Individually wrap sweet potatoes in foil and bake for 45-50 minutes, until tender.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Unwrap foil and remove peel. 
*I baked the sweet potatoes the night before and stored the peeled potatoes in tupperware overnight in the refrigerator.

In a food processor, combine chick peas and garlic.  Puree until "smooth" (mixture will be dry so it will not be completely smooth, but you'll be able to tell that it has been pureed).  Using a flexible spatula, scrape sides of the food processor to allow for further mixing.  Add the lemon juice, oil, sugar and spices; puree until smooth.  Add sweet potatoes; puree until smooth and completely combined.

Makes 10 servings (serving size is about 1/4 cup), approximately 80 calories per serving


I really cannot say enough good things about this recipe.  It is a perfect balance of slightly sweet and yummily savory.  I ate the hummus with multi-grain pita chips but I think it would also be very tasty with carrots, apple slices, spread on toast, eaten with crackers (maybe even graham crackers??), or off of a spoon =)  Let me know what you try!

Lastly, I want to admit that I have been dreaming about cupcakes ever since having the Jilly's cupcakes that I blogged about last time (and the other Jilly's cupcake I had after that...).  I want to stop thinking about cupcakes, but someone keeps rubbing them in my face...

Loving cupcakes - like mother, like puppy.

2 comments:

  1. Jennifer Cresswell-KetleyJanuary 25, 2012 at 1:25 PM

    Hi Ashley - This sounds (and looks) really good. I will add it to my list of things to try. Also, I've found that sweet potatoes "bake" quite nicely in the microwave. That might save you time, and heating the whole oven just for a couple sweet taters...

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  2. Thanks Jenn! I actually baked a handful of sweet potatoes...I plan on using the remaining taters for cupcakes, look for photos soon =P

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