Raw Zucchini Hummus

Have you ever had raw hummus?

As in, hummus made from raw, sprouted chickpeas?

I did. Once.

But not on purpose.

Early in our courtship, Rob decided to surprise me with some hummus. While we diligently follow our favourite recipe now, there was a time when Rob liked to “wing it”. At that time, Rob was a novice with beans, too.

He went all out and bought dried chickpeas. He soaked them overnight. He methodically added the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil and finally the chickpeas to his food processor. It churned away and then stopped working. The hummus had broken his food processor! The first thing that popped into Rob’s head was – let’s go to Janet’s apartment and use her food processor to finish it off. I was away, so he silently entered my apartment and finished off pureeing the hummus.

He surprised me the next day with the hummus when he met me in Texas. I tasted it. It was off. Did you follow a recipe? Yes! But then I tinkered with it since it didn’t taste as good as before. Oh well, we better find a better recipe next time. This tastes funny. I don’t know what it is, though.

A few days later, we figured it out. Maybe it was a week later.. or a month later, I can’t remember. This story is such a classic, I mostly remember the punch line….

Rob used raw chickpeas in the recipe. He soaked them but did not cook them. He didn’t know he had to cook them (canned chickpeas are already cooked?? the recipe didn’t tell me to cook them!). Thankfully, now he knows better. 😉

These days, hummus has become fairly ubiquitous for any bean spread. Technically, hummus is Arabic for chickpea and mostly associated with a chickpea puree with tahini.

I admit it: I am guilty of making non-traditional hummus. I have made hummuses (hummi? hummus?) with edamame and white beans instead of chickpeas, with peanut butter and cashews instead of tahini, and even a dessert option with peanut butter and chocolate! I have also souped up traditional hummus with pomegranate molasses and red pepper paste. Carrots and hummus have become my go-to snack lately.

However, those versions always used cooked beans. Now was my turn to try raw hummus. Without any sprouted beans, though.

With zucchini as its base instead of chickpeas, and cashews instead of tahini, there is not  much resemblance to classical hummus. However, it is one deliciously creamy spread spiced with garlic, lemon juice, nutritional yeast and miso. Use it to dip your favourite vegetables or crackers or however else you love to use hummus. 🙂 Lately I have been loving it with huge carrots as my after dinner snack. There is something so satisfying about eating a whole uncut carrot smothered in a garlicky hummusdip.

I am sharing this with the Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck.

Raw Zucchini Non-Hummus
Adapted from Ani’s 15-Day Fat Blast

1/4 cup cashews (soaked if you don’t have a high-speed blender like vitamix)
1 clove garlic
1 cup organic zucchini, roughly chopped (100g)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp miso (I used a mix of red and white)
2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1. Blend until creamy in a high-speed blender. I had to double the recipe to get it moving in my Vitamix, though.

Makes 1 cup.