Garden Green Bean Hummus

Oh how I love garden season!  All the planning and soil amending and bug killing pays off big time with a lush and productive farmer’s market of your very own.  Here’s my harvest from yesterday:

Husky red, green zebra, sun sugar and yellow pear tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, various colors of bell peppers, and royal burgundy “green” beans.  Naturally, because I seem to be thinking about food all the time, I started scheming on what sort of yumminess to cook up with this bounty. 

I decided to start with the beans.  I should have picked them a few days ago and was worried they might be tough–so, maybe some sort of puree?  A friend of mine makes a green bean pate, why not hummus with fresh beans?!

Inspired by a hummus recipe from The Gluten Free Vegan, I commenced to gathering what I needed and snapping my big pile of beans! 

• A big bunch of fresh green beans, stem end snapped, strings removed and snapped into 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces.  I ended up with 8 cups of snapped beans.
• 5-6 TBSP fresh lemon juice–two small or one large lemon
• 1/2 cup tahini (or more if desired)
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced thick and sauted until golden
• 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• fresh ground pepper
• pinch of cayenne
• olive oil for sauteing garlic and for serving

Snap beans, place in a large pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and simmer 20 minutes or until tender.

See how the beans are green inside?  They lose their pretty purple color as they cook.  So why grow purple beans?  Because they’re pretty, because they’re easier to find among all the green foliage, just because…  

Let the beans cool a bit and put them in a food processor.

This is a few beans less than I started with.  I just couldn’t resist snacking on a few while I toasted the pine nuts in a hot, dry skillet and sauted the garlic in a bit of olive oil.

Add lemon juice, tahini, pine nuts, garlic (and the oil it sauted in), salt, a bit of ground pepper and cayenne to the beans and process until you achieve the smoothness you like.

Using a chip, a cracker or a spoon, taste the hummus and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Spoon into a bowl (be careful with the processor blade!), drizzle a bit of olive oil on top and sprinkle with fresh-ground pepper. 

 

I’m lovin’ the fresh green taste of this hummus!  What a yummy solution to green beans that get too big (although perfect green beans will work as well)!  Serve with chips, crackers, bread, fresh veggies, or use as a sandwich or wrap spread.  Store left-overs in a covered container in the fridge for up to a week.

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