Thursday, September 26, 2013

"River Cottage Veg Everyday" - Cannellini Bean Hummus (Cannellini-Bohnen Hummus)


Today I am featuring the "Cannellini Bean Hummus" (Cannellini-Bohnen Hummus) as tenth post in my River Cottage Veg Everyday series.




Although Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall suggests serving this creamy hummus with flatbread or roasted leeks, I decided to serve this easy dip with lots of vegetables, most ot them raw.




For the hummus you need a can of cannellini beans or other white beans (really such a convenient pantry item), half a clove of garlic, a bit of tahini (that lovely sesame paste that has also become a staple at our house), olive oil, some freshly squeezed lemon juice, fresh thyme, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.- you process these ingredients to a purée. Done. You can adjust the seasonings according to your personal taste. At this point, I ususally end up adding more lemon juice to cut through the richness of the puréed white beans and tahini.




For a “topping” of the hummus, you can prepare a Paprika oil which consists of nothing else but olive oil (or rapeseed oil) and paprika (smoked or sweet). Those two ingredients need some gentle heat and a few minutes for the flavors to develop.




For the raw veggies I served “classic” orange carrots, violet carrots (they are particularly sweet and I love the fact that they are orange on the inside and violet on the outside) and yellow carrots  called "crème de lite"(they are less sweet than the other carrots), peas in their pods, red, orange and yellow tomatoes, and small snack cucumbers. And I found what seems to be the last of the sweet corn – I steamed it for a good ten minutes and let it cool before serving it with the other veggies (and, yes, we cut it into equal pieces before eating it with the hummus, same for the cucumbers).




For the paprika that I added to the oil, I settled on a Spanish smoked sweet paprika rather than using a Hungarian one. The flavor of a smoked paprika is quite different from the flavor of other paprika – we found the taste to be very harmonious with this hummus.

I also decided to serve the Paprika oil on the side as opposed to trickling it over the hummus – the kids prefer it that way and who am I to argue when they munch on all these lovely vegetables all the while happily digging into this nice white bean hummus?!




If you own the English edition of this vegetable cookbook, you will find the recipe for the “Cannellini Bean Hummus & Paprika oil” on page 300 in the chapter on "Mezze & Tapas".

 For more Hummus recipes:

  • Hummus with Broad Bean & Garden Herb Topping (Hummus mit dicken Bohnen & Gartenkräutern) (HERE)
  • Pottery Love, a handcrafted Bowl and Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi's Basic Hummus (HERE)
  • Red Beet Hummus & Comfort Food (Rote Beete Hummus & Wohlfühlessen) (HERE)
  • A Seasonal Delight: Wild Garlic Spring Hummus (Hummus mit Bärlauch) (HERE)
  • Seasonal Cooking: Hummus with Rhubarb Topping & Homemade Tortillas (Saisonale Küche: Hummus mit Rhabarber-Topping & selbstgemachten Tortillas) (HERE)


12 comments:

  1. I have never made hummus with white beans before...I usually use garbanzos. But I imagine the cannellini beans make the dip so much smoother. I can't wait to try this! And I love that you plated it with all those glorious raw vegetables. What a wonderful and healthy afternoon snack!

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    1. Monet, the white beans make for a nice change to the chickpeas - not that they aren´t delicious but we seem to prefer the taste and creaminess that cannellini beans gave to this dip. And this was such a nice version of a hummus - all with items that I have in my pantry. Great for one of those very busy days!

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  2. Hummus is one of my family's favorite dip. I love the use of raw veggies for dipping. Next time I make hummus, I am going to use cannelloni beans.

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    1. Geraldine, happy faces all around when I served this to the kids and my husband. We agreed that we like cannellini beans better than chickpeas in our hummus from now on.

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  3. I have never tried Hummus before but it sure looks tasty .

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    1. It is indeed tasty and so easy to put together and no matter what you serve with it, whether it is bread or veggies, it is alway delicious and well liked all around!

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  4. Andrea love, I only make hummus w cannellinis. No garbanzos for this girl.
    The cannellinis have such a smooth and creamy texture - absolutely beautiful in hummus.
    Love all the garden-fresh veggies you have for your crudite - the red carrots look very nice.
    Hope your w/end is lazy!
    xox

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    1. Colette, you should give these darling white cannellinis a try, my dear! Lovely, creamy and delizioso, is all I can say!
      But I do not know about thaose lazy weekends - I have not had one in quite some time and it does not look like there will be one coming up soon either - but that is fine by me, a long as there is fabulous food at the end of the long day!

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  5. wow! your photography is making me want to grow the dragons heart carrots again! :)

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    1. Alice, thank you - I had no idea that these carrots werre called "dragon heart carrots" - what a wonderful name for a vegetable as lovely at this! I miss your gardening posts, dear Alice - when you were living in the UK, you always had those wonderful posts about your garden!

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