Hummus with chickpeas and peanuts, Cajun-flavored
Yet another hummus?! Yes, and no. This one is the perfect companion to your Summer barbecues. And it's not, technically, a hummus.
Serves: a lot, until they realize they’re full
Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes
I like hummus. This is the third installment of what seems to be a regular hummus appreciation series (after a double capsicum hummus - red bell pepper & chili pepper hummus, then mint leaves, Thai red chili peppers, and amchur hummus). However, there’s a lie in the title of this recipe: it’s not a hummus stricto-sensu. The definition of a hummus is a dish of cooked, mashed chickpeas with tahini, lemon juice and garlic. When you’ll read the ingredient list, you’ll notice all of them but tahini are present. So it’s not an actual hummus.
When our best friend invited us for the now traditional first barbecue of the season, in May, we listed what we could bring to participate. As a vegan, I usually brought alternatives to cheese, however over time I’ve lowered my consumption of transformed products, and I enjoy my vegan burgers without these slices. Instead, I use a home-made lupin-based spread, or a flavored hummus. I had delighted the audience with the former the year before, so this time I decided to prepare a hummus. Looking at my supply, I discovered I was running out of tahini. Looking at our available time and budget, it was wiser to delay the unplanned grocery shopping by one week. Like with engineering, constraints force to be creative, and I decided to use peanuts instead of tahini. If you still don’t forgive me for calling this recipe a hummus, taste it; I bet you’ll pardon me!
Back to my hummus series: the first recipe was more or less a traditional hummus, the second one bridged Levantine and Thai cuisines; this one borrows flavors from the Cajun cuisine.
About cajun cuisine
Cajun cuisine is a style of cooking developed by descendants of French settlers in North America, who were deported from Acadia (nowadays Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Maine) to Louisiana in the 18th century. In their new home, Cajuns incorporated West African, French, and Spanish cooking techniques to their own — what today we would call fusion cuisine.
Traditional Cajun cuisine revolves around cooking techniques (the first one being barbecueing), and relies on locally available products. Dishes include vegetables, and make extensive use of meat and fish. There’s nothing which can’t be veganized with substitutes cooked using the same techniques. It won’t have the same taste, for sure, however the spices will bring the intended flavors.
The present recipe is proud to advertise itself as Cajun-flavored as it includes thyme, oregano, marjoram, bay leaves, lemon juice, lime, onion, and garlic — which are all common in Cajun cuisine.
Ingredients
845 g of canned chick peas (gross weight, 468 g net weight without the liquid for your information — do not get rid of the liquid!)
150 g roasted peanuts1 (save a hand of peanuts as toppings for presentation)
1 small yellow onion ~ 60 g
6 garlic cloves ~ 25 g
20 mL lemon juice
4 bay leaves
Dried thyme sprigs ~ 4 g
3 table spoons of mild paprika
1 table spoon of dried oregano
Half a table spoon of dried marjoram
Half a table spoon of lime zest
Salt — only if the roasted peanuts are not salted
Preparation
Although there are many ingredients listed in the previous section, there’s little to prepare. If you don’t have frozen or ready-to-use lime rind, you’ll need to prepare this, too.
Peel and chop finely the yellow onion
Peel and chop finely the garlic
Brush thyme sprigs to save 1 table spoon of thyme leaves
Cooking
The cooking part of this recipe is straight-forward, and will require neither much of your time, nor special abilities.
In a deep pan or pot, drop the chickpeas along with their liquid, the thyme sprigs and the bay leaves
Heat the pot to medium flame/power to return its content to a boil
Let it boil for 5 minutes
Remove thyme sprigs and bay leaves; it’s okay if you miss one or two sprigs, nobody shall notice afterward
Transfer into a food processor or blender — let it cool a bit if needed, for example if you use a plastic-made food processor or blender
Add chopped onion and garlic, lemon juice, peanuts, and spices (thyme leaves, oregano, paprika, marjoram, and lime rind)
Mix until you obtain a creamy paste
Transfer into a hermetic container; leave to cool before sealing, then refrigerate
Like regular hummus, this one is best appreciated cold. I usually prepare hummus the day before I plan to start eating it. Even if it was designed to be spread on bread and team up with hot vegan patties cooked on a barbecue, the fact it was cold (or cool by the time it was in our mouth) did not bother — like salad or tomatoes are cool and do fresh into burgers. Next time I prepare this recipe, I believe I’ll serve it with rice and slow-cooked veggies.
Enjoy!
If you’ve tried the recipe, and would like to comment - whether you loved it, or hated it - please do so. I’m welcoming ideas, even if these are non-vegan recipes I’ll have the challenge to “veganize”.
Here’s a tip before you go
This recipe asks you brush thyme sprigs to save a table spoon of leaves for later steps in the cooking process. The fun thing with brushing thyme is that leaves will jump out of the stems like frenzy — and your kitchen floor will smell great. Since the purpose is to save them, I can offer a smart way to do so. Leave the thyme sprigs in a tall jar (see the pictures of the ingredients), and insert your hand to brush them inside the jar; doing so, you’ll mitigate the issue.
Be cautious: peanut is a known allergen
You can never have too much hummus! I like this take on it, with peanuts! I’ll be giving this a go. Also I love the “serves: a lot, until they realise they’re full” 😂
I am not mistaken I have already taste this delightfull humous!! And it's brillant!! :)