Green Garlic Hummus with Green Garbanzo Beans

Freshly harvested mild green garlic and green garbanzo beans make a colorful and flavorful dip.

We are all hungry. My spouse is bike commuting these days and comes home starved. My kids get home from these last weeks of school and are starved. I think about making dinner and get peckish. Having an easy appetizer on hand, one that is protein-packed like hummus, is such a time- and appetite-saver for us all. I'm not worried about mindless snacking when I know what went into the dip.

Sometimes I'm buying the giant vats of Sabra from Costco to get our hummus fix. Sometimes I'm looking around at the contents of our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box for hummus ideas. I've done quite a few for the blog--here are some of them:

In the spring we sometimes get fresh green garlic in the farm share. I like to play with it and try new things--I grow my own garlic but I've never harvested it as green garlic. Susan of Luna Cafe has a Fresh Primer on Green Garlic and Garlic Scapes--check it out here. [The garlic scapes, however, are something very worth harvesting--here's what a brand new baby scape looked like on my tallest plant the other day]. 

This hummus marks my first foray into green garbanzo beans. I saw some at my local spice shop and couldn't resist. I had no clue that spice shops existed before I moved to Dayton, and now I'm aware of 3--although I primarily shop at Spice Paradise where I got these beans. You can also make this with regular dry or canned chick peas. Whatever's easiest.

Green garbanzo beans and green garlic seemed like a good idea--so I made a hummus. We enjoy hummus with carrots, pita chips, pretzel chips, and even piled up in a plate with other summer eats for an easy dinner.

For other recipes using garlic, please see my Garlic Recipe Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. Want to know how to Use This Blog? Click here. For other vegetable appetizers, please see my Awesome Veggie Apps and Snacks Pinterest board. To see what's up in the garden, feel free to check out my FB page. And, for more clickable collages of recipe suggestions like the hummus above, click here. 

Note: green garbanzo beans are smaller than the usual chick pea size but tasted very similar. I soaked them overnight and then simmered them in fresh water for about 45 minutes until they were tender enough to smash.

Green Garlic Hummus with Green Garbanzo Beans

3 cups cooked green garbanzo beans (or 2 cans chick peas, rinsed and drained)
1 bulb (the whole knob end) of fresh green garlic, chopped
½ cup (4 ounces by volume) tahini
½ cup (4 ounces by volume) lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
½ cup flat Italian parsley leaves
1 teaspoon salt (I use kosher)
¼ teaspoon ground cumin seed
¼ cup (2 ounces by volume) olive oil, plus more to drizzle over the serving bowl

Dump the garbanzo beans and chopped green garlic into a food processor. Pulse a few times, then scrape down the sides. Combine the rest of the ingredients in the food processor, pulse to get it all going, then process until thoroughly combined and uniformly smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.  Transfer to a serving container and drizzle with a bit more olive oil.
Serve with vegetables to dip, or as the base of a layered vegetable appetizer, in a collection of other enticements for a summer supper plate . . .

As far as taking a week off to weed the blog--well, that weeding didn't happen. I was overly ambitious to think that I could host the grandparents coming into town for the kids' concerts and my spouse taking a bunch of leave and still have time to sit around on the computer. It'll happen.
This post is shared with What's Cookin' Wednesday.