Lemony White Bean and Basil Hummus

I'm pretty sure I didn't even try hummus until I was in high school. I'm not sure if that ages me, but when I was growing up in Michigan, I don't ever really remember seeing it around until I was older. Funny, because hummus is one of my son's favorite things to eat EVER!

When my son was around 15 months old, he was sitting with me while I was eating a snack. Carrots and hummus are a go-t0 for me, and he just dug his hand in the hummus, put it in his mouth, and it was love at first taste! Ever since then, it has been one of his favorite things to eat. I pack it in his lunch every.single.day for school, and he even wants it for dinner. I'm not kidding! You would think that he would be sick of it by now.

Since I try to make as much as I can from scratch, and my son's obsession just seemed to grow, I decided to start making hummus at home. I started with garbanzo (aka chickpeas), since that is what most recipes call for. I even have a recipe for Homemade Hummus on this site! It is a good recipe, but I will say, I like it better with white beans. This actually came to me by chance. I was out of garbanzo beans, and god forbid we don't have hummus in the fridge, so I decided to try and make white bean hummus. I have had it before, but never really thought about trying to make it. With that as my only option, white beans it was! Since then, white beans are what I prefer!

The white beans make the hummus much more smooth and creamy. My son didn't seem to notice the difference until I made it with garbanzo beans again, and he said it tasted different...he still ate it!

The nicest compliment though...when my son's best friend's mom asked about the hummus, because her son "liked Grant's hummus." If I can help another mom get her toddler to eat, then my life is complete!

Lemony White Bean and Basil Hummus

Author:

Maria Provenzano

Ingredients

1 15oz can white beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup tahini
handful of fresh basil
1 large (or 2 small) garlic clove
the zest of 1 lemon
the juice of 1-2 lemons; depending on how lemony you like it
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil
salt (and pepper if desired)

Instructions

Place the garlic in the food processor, and process into small pieces
Add in the rinsed and drained white beans, tahini, basil, lemon zest, and juice of 1 lemon
Process until pureed
With the processor running, start pouring in some of the olive oil
Pour in enough until you achieve the consistency you like, if it is too thick, add more olive oil
Taste if it needs more salt and lemon, and add more if needed by processing
You want to process it until it is smooth
Store in an airtight container, and refrigerate

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