Finding healthy and delicious alternatives to indulgent holiday foods is crucial in keeping us honest in our journey towards complete health and wellness. In fact, I believe there is no holiday health strategy more important if we hope to make it through the next six weeks with our sanity! With that in mind, I have spent the past month or so playing around in the kitchen in an attempt to take fairly ordinary foods and amplify their nutritional value so that we can keep the spirit of the season front-and-center in the face of epicurean delight. And, holding fast to my recent obsession with sprouting, one of my most successful creations thus far has been a modified and nutritionally amplified version of our old friend hummus.
Traditional hummus is an amazing alternative to fat- and sugar-laden dips adorning “healthy” holiday veggie platters. The garbanzo beans from which hummus is made are a great vegetarian source of protein to keep us going during marathon gift wrapping sessions and are brimming with fiber to keep our digestive systems happy despite repeated eggnog assaults. An added bonus, the fiber in garbanzo beans have been found to decrease cardiovascular risk, improve blood sugar regulation, and reduce appetite.
Sprouted hummus takes the garbanzo bean’s nutritional value to the next level by making its complex starches more digestible and breaking down anti-nutrients that can interfere with the absorption of certain vitamins and minerals. Many believe that sprouting also awakens the life-force within dormant beans, nuts, and grains so that their energy is more easily conferred upon those who consume them. Learn how to sprout garbanzo beans in my tutorial here.
If all that nutritional goodness isn’t enough to convince you, sprouted hummus is amazingly delicious and pairs with pretty much any food that you could ever fathom. Crudités, lentil chips and tabooley are just a few of my preferred pairing items, but my absolute favorite way to incorporate more sprouted hummus is in a vegetable heavy sandwich or wrap doused in olive oil and little balsamic vinegar. Morning, noon or night, enjoy this amazingly nutritious AND delicious Sprouted Garbanzo Hummus to help get you through the holiday food minefield.
Sprouted Garbanzo Hummus
2 cups sprouted garbanzo beans
2 Tbs. tahini
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt to taste
- Place garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice and garlic in a food process and pulse until well mixed.
- Through the feed tube, slowly pour in olive oil with the food processor running.
- Salt to taste, refrigerate and serve.
Image courtesy of Matthew Lovitt
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