Barbecue Hummus!

Hormel Nature Center Wildflowers, West Prairie Loop

I had the opportunity this weekend to go visit a friend who is living in Austin, Minnesota for the summer. My friend and I biked around town (deviant behavior! Most people drive everywhere, though the town is small, with wide streets and wide shoulders) and visited the Hormel Nature Center (aside from the people finishing up a bike race, we were the only people we saw the entire time we wandered) where we walked about four miles, looked at prairie flowers and grasses, waded through streams, and got attacked by swarms of hungry mosquitoes. After this, we biked to Hy-Vee grocery and picked up supplies for dinner. I wore sunglasses pushed back on my head and we both had on backpacks. My friend pointed out that at least one person gave us a strange look. We bought grapes, apples, and peaches (apples and peaches for immediately consumption), and the black-bean burger ingredients his pantry was missing. At the checkout, I told the bagger I didn't need a bag--I'd just put things in my backpack. Another strange look. My friend said the same thing and the bagger looked disgusted with us.

You should know, when I arrived, his host parents asked first if I was a cyclist also (yes), and if I was also a vegetarian (yes). Austin, Minnesota, if you didn't know, is the home of Hormel and, as my friend later shared, his host family makes gentle (my interpretation, not his) fun of anything remotely deviant. They consider his bike to work (3 miles) a long bike. He has a car there, he just doesn't use it--and is considering getting rid of it altogether.

While we were making Veganomicon black bean burgers (with vital wheat gluten and bread crumbs despite my suspected gluten sensitivity--he knows about this and offered to leave both items out; I didn't feel like trying to figure out how to fix it if it went wrong and now thing that these could both be left out with no problem, fyi if you decide to try the recipe), my friend mentioned that since his experiment with Swiss chard hummus worked out, he wanted to try making barbecue hummus next.

Barbecue hummus! What a great idea (crediting this to him)! I asked how he planned to make it barbecue flavored and he responded "um, with barbecue spices, I guess. I thought about using barbecue sauce but decided that would be cheating." I agreed (though that didn't make the idea of using barbecue sauce less appealing--there are a couple of barbecue sauces made locally that I adore). My mouth watered for barbecue hummus after my friend mentioned this plan.

And so when I got home Sunday, I proceeded to make my own variation of barbecue hummus. I wanted to use up some of my dried beans, so I used about 1/4 pound of dried lima beans and a cup of red lentils (I didn't measure, so this is very approximate). I soaked them before cooking, and cooked them on medium heat for about an hour, adding water as needed. I added minced garlic halfway through the bean cooking time, and at the end, added barbecue spice (which I had on hand as a "free" sample--meaning if I came in and spent at least $5 they'd hand me a tiny jar as a reward--from the local bulk spice dealer, Penzey's). The result: delicious!

I don't currently have tahini, so it isn't included in this recipe, but if you have tahini and like it in your hummus (and I do, don't get me wrong) you should definitely add it.

Barbecue Hummus (amounts are approximate)
1/4 pound dried Lima beans
1 cup dried red lentils
Water
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon barbecue spices (I used BBQ 3000), or to taste
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt, optional, to taste

Soak your limas and lentils by boiling them in water (I use approximately a 2:1 ratio for soaking) for 1 minute and then covering and allowing to rest, off the heat, for 3 hours. Add more water (I like my hummus thin, but not runny) and boil the beans and lentils for 30 minutes, adding water if needed. Add the garlic and continue to cook another 30 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the BBQ spice, paprika, and lemon juice, then blend until smooth (I use an immersion blender, but a food processor or mashing by hand would work also) . Taste and add salt, if desired.

Chill and serve.

Note: The hummus will thicken as it cools. Also, there aren't pictures of the hummus itself, because it turns an unappealing (on the camera) color. Mine looks prettier in person--BUT the exact color will vary based on the spices you use.