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

The prepared hummus, in a hermetic plastic box because I brought it to a friend’s barbecue party - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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

Ingredients for the recipe, before preparation; you’re entitled to point the picture is too dark and that you have no idea what the two small cups at the bottom left contain (it’s the paprika and the oregano) - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

• 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.

1. Peel and chop finely the yellow onion

2. Peel and chop finely the garlic

3. Brush thyme sprigs to save 1 table spoon of thyme leaves

Ingredients for the recipe, after preparation; you can play “spot the differences” - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Cooking

The cooking part of this recipe is straight-forward, and will require neither much of your time, nor special abilities.

1. In a deep pan or pot, drop the chickpeas along with their liquid, the thyme sprigs and the bay leaves

2. Heat the pot to medium flame/power to return its content to a boil

3. Let it boil for 5 minutes

4. Remove thyme sprigs and bay leaves; it’s okay if you miss one or two sprigs, nobody shall notice afterward

5. 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

6. Add chopped onion and garlic, lemon juice, peanuts, and spices (thyme leaves, oregano, paprika, marjoram, and lime rind)

7. Mix until you obtain a creamy paste

8. Transfer into a hermetic container; leave to cool before sealing, then refrigerate

Onion, garlic, and spices on top of previous ingredients, ready to mix (step 6) - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

A perfect creamy paste, after mixing (step 8) - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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.

Close-up on the hummus, with four peanuts as topping - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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”.

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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.

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1. Be cautious: peanut is a known allergen