Chocolate Humus

Chocolate hummus and fresh strawberries.

First you should all know, I do not like humus: it's totally a texture thing. That said, for the next to posts I'll be stepping out of my comfort zone to share not one but two humus recipes. This week, it chocolate!

On day while chatting with my coworkers about food (basically the only thing we talk about when we're not talking work), the subject of humus came up and in not time, I voiced my ill-opinion of the stuff. My coworker Brittany is an accomplished home baker and mentioned that she likes chocolate humus and that I would be surprised at how yummy it is. (It is hard to go wrong with anything chocolate after all). A couple o days later she came in with a tub of store-brand chocolate humus fro the local Shaw's supermarket. I had some plain rice crackers kicking around and that's what we used to taste the stuff. Suffice it to say, that I was shocked at the smooth almost pudding texture and was taking photos of the label so I would have an ingredient list for a rabbit hole experiment to make it myself.

The only ingredient that threw me was the preservative nisin. Some research indicated some pantry staples that are suitable replacements. Cinnamon and vinegar were among them. I love the combination of balsamic vinegar with chocolate (truffle recipe will come in time for the holidays), so it was balsamic and some cinnamon that I included in my initial attempt at duplicating this tub of goodness. What I didn't do in my maiden humus voyage is take photos of the process figuring I'd be fine tuning.

The good news is that I wrote everything down accurately and there's no need for fine tuning the recipe, the bad news is that I only have finished photos. Since literally everything gets dumped in the food processor, there's not really a huge need for how-to images anyway.

THE RECIPE:

1 can chickpeas drained and liquid preserved

1/4C maple syrup

2T honey

NOTE: (I like the honey and syrup as sweeteners rather than processed sugar, plus I was hoping they would help 'smooth' out the texture)

2/4C unsweetened cocoa powder

1t pure vanilla extract

1/4 t sea salt

2T balsamic vinegar

1t cinnamon

Reserved liquid from chickpeas

Place everything except the chickpea liquid in a food processor and pulse until blended.

Alternately, scrape down the sides and process until smooth

Adjust the thickness if needed by adding small amounts of the liquid from the chickpeas.

Store in the fridge in an air tight container.

I haven't tried to freeze it yet, but my experience with next week's recipe tells me that it will freeze just fine.

It's great on crackers or with your favorite fresh fruit.

Thought for Food

(I think this is going to be my new mantra for sharing one-off ideas)

I'm considering a modified Fluffernutter on healthy bread with a layer of peanut butter, a layer of the humus, and just a tad of the Fluff. A photo may make it to Insta when I try it. If you make it before I get around to it, be sure and let me know!