Hummus - with a colorful twist!

I love the magic of food - whole, amazing food - how it feels when I cook it, how colorful it is, the textures, the tastes, how it comes together in ever more creative concoctions, how it makes me feel and how much fun food can be! When I talk about it, I often get the glazed over stares and can feel the eyes rolling like this person is crazy! So, I have learned to keep quiet unless someone specifically asks me a question. However, my students, who get what I mean about food, are always asking for more and more recipes. So, I am going to try to share as many recipes as I can on my blog. My intention is to design the blog to be easy to search and use. I will add my notes - because I rarely make something exactly as the recipe instructs! I will also mention from time to time how a recipe or specific food can be beneficial in creating vibrant health - for, as I hope most of us know that food is medicine! (How boring - I rather think of it as food is magic!)

Today's recipe is for Black Olive - Sweet Potato Hummus and it comes from Delicious Living (http://deliciouslivingmag.com/). I made it just this week and it was absolutely delicious and so easy! It is great as a dip with fresh veggies or crackers. It would be easy to take for lunch. It would be great on a sandwich or wrap. It makes a great appetizer to take to a party or serve to guests. Sweet potatoes are in abundant supply from the farmers markets right now and quite inexpensive as well!

Ingredients:

1 small sweet potato (about 6 ounces)

1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives

2 medium cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/3 cup fresh basil leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Minced sun-dried tomatoes, for garnish

Basil leaves, for garnish

1. Wrap sweet potato in foil and bake at 400 degrees F for about 1 hour, or until soft

2. Remove potato from oven, unwrap, and let cool. Scoop out insides of sweet potato and place in a food processor. Add garbanzos, olive oil, olives, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Puree until smooth. Add 1/3 cup basil leaves and pulse for 10 seconds. Season with salt and pepper, and transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with sun-dried tomatoes and whole basil leaves.

My notes: If you don't have a food processor, you can try this in a blender but may have to add a little liquid or a little more oil to make sure it mixes properly. You can purchase a small food processor pretty inexpensively and make this in 2 batches as well.

For those of you that like spicy foods, you may want to add more red pepper flakes. I added kelp granules to this before adding any salt. I add kelp granules to almost everything I fix because it contains so many wonderful minerals without affecting the taste as long as you don't use too much.

It is very easy to make garbanzo beans from scratch in a large batch and use 2 cups freshly prepared and drained garbanzos in lieu of the canned beans.