Easy Pinto Bean Hummus

No game day celebration, cocktail party, or even casual gathering with friends is complete without a snack, and I have to say, cheese and crackers aside, nothing quite beats hummus. It's perfect for us gluten-free folk, and equally as fabulous for vegetarians and vegans.

When I discovered a myriad of food sensitivities nearly two years ago, some made sense (Gluten. Oats. Dairy. Shrimp. CORN!). Others didn't, but after eating them again (Lentils. Chickpeas. Quinoa), I realized I couldn't fool my body.

So commenced a hummus dry spell in my life. Quite sad and unfortunate. Until I started experimenting with the two kinds of beans that didn't leave me doubled over in pain and my tummy frozen for days: Pinto Beans and Black Beans.

There are a number of ways of dressing up this blend. I kept it simple, with lots of garlic and ample seasoning, along with some cumin and cayenne for a kick. PERFECT with carrots, and awfully tasty with potato chips (hey, I can't do pita chips anymore) -- and fabulous with melted cheese on rice tortillas or in burritos.

For those of us allergic to chickpeas and sensitive to tahini, now you won't be deprived!

Easy Homemade Pinto Bean Hummus

12 ounces cups dried organic pinto beans (I used Laurel Hill's Heirloom beans) *preferred over canned
3 cloves garlic
Salt, to taste
Cumin, to taste
Cayenne, to taste
Paprika, to taste

Soak beans overnight. Rinse twice, agitating with hands each time. Cover beans with 2x their depth of water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook until tender and beans can be smushed with a fork easily.

Blitz garlic and 1/2 cup of beans, and 1/4+ of cooking water, in Cuisinart (I had to do mine in batches as all I have is a mini-prep). Place in bowl. Repeat with more beans, water, and seasonings. Repeat until all beans have been blended. Check for seasonings, adding more cumin, salt, or cayenne as desired.

Serve warm with pita chips and/or carrots -- or save as a spread for lunches. The sky is the limit!

Healthy Fudgy Brownies (Perfect for a Birthday)

I remember my first bean brownie experience. It was in Westport, CT, at this little natural foods store called Food for Thought. Everything and anything in there was virtuous and healthy. And flavorless and dull, or so I thought. Until my mom brought these home. Super moist, chocolaty, and a bit fudgy, I figured there had to be tons of butter and sugar in them…

Not black beans. Yeah, THOSE black beans.

Now that I’m gluten-free, these are the perfect, easy, chocolaty fix I often crave. Plus, I don’t feel all too bad knowing they contain black beans, packed with protein, nutrients, and other goodness. It’s like a super food sweet.

I recently made these for a friend for her birthday. Topped with one of my favorite Talenti flavors, and homemade whipped cream. Later this week, they’ll likely be served for a late-night, study-break/schoolwork snack infused with some peanut butter, perhaps – ‘cause we killed the caramel last week…

Birthday Black Bean Brownies 

1 (15 ounce) can no-salt-added black beans, drained and rinsed, and pureed until smooth
3 large eggs
1/3 cup melted butter, more for the baking dish
1/3 cup cocoa powder plus 2 tablespoons dark hot chocolate mix
1/8 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter an 8-inch baking pan. Place the black beans, eggs, melted butter, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor, or with an immersion blender in a medium bowl, and blend until smooth. Remove the blade and gently stir in the chocolate chips. Transfer mixture to the prepared pan. Bake the brownies for 30 or so, or until just set in the center. Cool before cutting into squares.

Canned Creativity

Mondays. The beginning of the week, an opportunity to start the week off right. It's true! But these days, I'm so darn busy that Monday blurs into Tuesday, then to Thursday, then Friday (and in my case, to Saturday and still working hard). Sigh.

I've been working these past weeks to "clean" out my cabinets of food, as I'm moving out of the city back home to start on a new adventure in food. So far, so good! But, I've had a major surplus of canned tomatoes and am definitely sick of tomatoes - tomato sauce, tomato soup, more tomato sauce. Luckily, there was some other "random stuff" in there - lentils, brown rice, a can of black beans...wait! Eureka! Spacing out on the subway home, I had an idea!

My friend The Lunchbelle had brought some cilantro to my place Saturday when I made dinner. I still had some left over, and was craving a "fresh" spin on dinner, and I thought up just the combination: canned whole tomatoes, chopped up, mixed with my can of black beans (no salt), and a lot of cilantro. The perfect topping? An avocado, so I stopped off at the market on my way home to grab one.

The prep was easy - open cans, smush with a spoon, season liberally with salt to taste (I'm a huge fan of Maldon salt - there is no comparison!). I was utterly famished, so I served my black bean and avocado salad with some cold leftover mac and cheese from Saturday's dinner - a quick and complete dinner in a bowl.

I still have a pint of this salad left over - maybe for lunch later this week? A late dinner? Whenever it's eaten, I hope it's even better than before now that flavors have had time to blend.