Hello friends. I’m typing from my friends’ light-filled home in Kansas City, with their two dogs puttering around nearby. It’s a happy place. I make a point to travel as much as possible, and the opportunity to travel has already presented itself twice this month. I pack light, sleep well and get to soak in new sights. It’s invigorating. I especially love the chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones while I’m away.
I’m glad Erin chose hot hummus for this week’s Food Matters Project recipe. Oh, the possibilities it presented! I have wanted to try making white bean hummus since I saw Melissa’s caffe DeLuca-inspired recipe last summer. Ironically, I got to meet up with Ms. Fauxmartha herself just a few months later during my trip to Chicago last fall, and we shared drinks over caffe DeLuca’s white bean hummus!
I’ve been looking for an excuse to use roasted garlic in a recipe lately, so I decided to add a couple of heads of roasted garlic to the mix. My friend Michael introduced me to roasted garlic a few years ago. Michael and I have a curious tradition of getting together to roast garlic, which we slather like butter onto crusty bread while watching Arrested Development and drinking glass after glass of red wine. I highly recommend it. Beware of consuming excess amounts of roasted garlic and wine on work nights, however, lest you go to work with a hangover and a belly ache, while the once-heavenly and now-nauseating scent of garlic seeps out of your every pore. (Potential employers and future suitors: please disregard my last statement.)
I also thought I’d take the opportunity to roast some kabocha squash while I roasted the garlic. I followed Heidi’s instructions, tossing the slices in olive oil, sprinkling them with salt and then roasting them at 425 degrees “within an inch of their life”. I ate slices with the skin on, but next time I’ll cut the skin off before baking.
This was my first kabocha squash experience and, like, woah. Kabocha knocks the pants off acorn squash, and delicata squash doesn’t stand a chance. Kabocha could beat butternut squash in a fist fight, for sure. It’s battling against sweet potatoes to become my cold weather vegetable of choice. It’s a knock-down, drag-out fight and I think kabocha just might win. This is a fiercely delicious winter squash. Get one before it’s too late.
I served my roasted kabocha and white bean hummus with whole wheat linguine and a sprinkle of chopped fresh rosemary and lemon juice. Though my pictures may not present this dish in its full glory, please store this flavor combination in your mind for next fall: white beans, roasted garlic, kabocha squash, rosemary. It’s one worth remembering. Another key takeaway is that warmed white bean hummus makes a wonderfully creamy and hearty vegan pasta sauce. My hummus had the texture of mashed potatoes, but you could certainly thin it out by whisking in some extra olive oil, water and/or lemon juice, if desired.
- 2 to 3 heads of garlic
- 3 cups cooked Great Northern beans, or other white beans, liquid reserved
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup cooking liquid or water
- 1/4 cup olive oil (plus extra to drizzle on top)
- 1/4 cup tahini
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- chopped fresh rosemary, for sprinkling on top
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Roast the garlic: chop off the heads of the garlic, and cut off the tops of each clove. Place on aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and wrap tightly in foil. Toss in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until nice and golden on top. The cloves of garlic should yield easily to pressure.
- In a food processor, combine the white beans, cooking liquid or water, olive oil, tahini, salt and pepper, and lemon juice. Let the garlic cool until it’s comfortable to touch, then squeeze out each individual clove of garlic and add to the food processor. Blend well, and adjust seasonings to taste (add more olive oil, salt and pepper, or lemon juice as necessary).
- Transfer to a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until warm. Sprinkle with rosemary. Serve with roasted or raw vegetables, pita chips or pita bread, toasted crostini, or a loaf of crusty whole wheat bread. The options are endless. If you want to make a meal of it, I highly recommend serving it with whole wheat linguine and roasted kabocha squash.
- Adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook
. Find Mark Bittman’s original recipe at Naturally Ella.
- As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve gotten into the habit of cooking big pots of beans from scratch and freezing them for later. For this hummus, I defrosted roughly three cups of beans and tossed them into my food processor, which was even easier than cranking open cans of beans.
35 Comments
This is all I need for a meal!
I adore hummus and have been meaning to make a baked hummus version for a while… I agree, though, kabocha are great. I was only introduced to them late this winter, too… I am stockpiling a few for my spring needs. :)
This looks insanely delicious! And I can totally relate to the slathering-of-garlic-like-butter thing. My aunt and uncle introduced me to the roasted garlic cloves on toasted baguette, smeared with brie, and it is one of the simplest and most amazing things I have ever tasted.
Roasted garlic and brie?! I’m trying that combination, stat.
Love kabocha squash. I feel like I was cooking with it all winter. And hummus? I made homemade hummus quite often, but never serve it hot…or with roasted garlic?! You’re opening up some serious possibilities here…
Your kabocha squash posts came to mind the second I picked up that squash at the store, Kasey. Thanks for encouraging me to try it. I’m obsessed!
Love your Caffe DeLuca style hummus. And loved sharing a meal together!
Yes! I had the greatest time with you at Caffe DeLuca. We’ll meet again, someday, somehow, I just know it!
I am also a “roasted garlic slathered on bread” person. sooooo freaking delicious!
What a delicious meal! I’ve never had kabocha squash and will make sure to snag one before it’s too late. Your hummus looks super creamy… Did the white beans make it so?
Yes, I believe the white beans whipped up more so than chickpeas do. The hummus really had the texture of mashed potatoes, and it even tasted a little like it, too!
Hot?! Awesome idea! This sounds delightful!
You had me at roasted garlic and squash- so delicious! Your trip to KC sounds like the kind of trip I need to take soon- have a great time!
I have never had warm hummus! You make is sound fabulous. And now I want a vaca. Badly. I mentioned your blog today on my post today, so I hope you got some new visitors!
Holy cow, lady this looks GERD. And you’re here, that’s right!
Yum! I make my own hummus quite a lot but I’ve never served it hot. Or with squash. Or over pasta. So many new things to try!
I loooooove kabocha squash and put it in anything I can! Great idea serving it with the roasted garlic hummus–yum!!
I love getaways. And this! Jeez, I’ve been wanting to make white bean hummus for forever. I need to get on that. Hope you’re having a grand time with your friend.
I make a version of this all the time to top our crostini/bruschetta, but I love to drizzle a bit of good quality balsamic vinegar on it. Try it! So delicious!
I certainly will try a drizzle of balsamic with my hummus! Sounds great! I have been meaning to make a balsamic reduction, I bet that would be extra tasty with hummus!
This recipe sounds very yummy and I love trying new squash although I DO love butternut squash.
If you love butternut squash, I think you’ll fall head over heels for kabocha. It is SO good!
Warm hummus! What a great idea, trying this soon.
Sounds like a great combination of flavors! beautiful photos too…
This whole roasted garlic, wine, and Arrested Development thing…I need to get in on this. Sounds like a perfect evening! (Should I take this as another opportunity to tell you I love white beans? A lot.)
mmmmm, I can almost smell this. I need to do some traveling soon. It’s been too long!
So lovely that you are able to travel near and far :-) I’ve got two out of three of your recs for a good night right now: red wine (on my second glass, sitting next to me), and arrested development (just watched three episodes as we re-watch the entire series from the beginning for the, oh, 30th time). Now I am seriously craving roasted garlic. And white bean hummus. And missing kabocha squash!! Glorious recipe.
Yes! I really love finding people who love Arrested Development as much as I do. Best. Show. Ever.
Yummo….I can’t wait to make this! Could you use cannellini beans with this recipe? I can’t get Great Northern beans in Australia.
Yes, I think you could definitely swap cannellini beans for the Great Northern beans. Enjoy!
Wow! Delicious entree…and I’m not even a vegetarian. I plan to make the same menu when I have my vegetarian friends over for dinner. YUM.
hello… you had me at arrested development :) can’t wait for the new season.
just found your blog and I’m loving it!! Thanks.
Thanks, Michelle! I’m super excited about the new season, too. Glad you’re enjoying my blog, thank you for the comment!
I made this while being trapped indoors due to Hurricane (Superstorm?) Sandy and it was a treat!!! Super easy, too. I added thyme instead of rosemary. Yum!
Hope you made it through the storm unscathed, Shiraz. Glad you enjoyed the hummus. I bet thyme was great!
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