Above: the jolly green giant hummus topped with organic hempseed for protein and fancy pants presentation.
Green Giant Kale & Broccoli Fermented Hummus
Sooo…. Thanksgiving happened. Sandwiched between having a wicked flu myself and dealing with a full night and day of helicopter vomit with my poor dear [the name of child has been removed for his or her emotional protection]. Needless to say with sickness and the marathon that Thanksgiving, I haven’t been posting anything. Not that I haven’t been fooding… I have. Just not blogging. So we may or may not be seeing some of those recipes in the next few days.
I’ve already given my spiel about the benefits of fermenting beans and legumes but it never hurts to re-cap. Because who doesn’t love a frugal paleo hack. So! Beans contain a high level of phytates and lectins, which does some bad stuff (read this post) and is not so paleo. But! Cooking and then fermenting legumes can reduce these phytates and lectins by up to 85%, essentially “hacking” those beans into a stable veg the likes of other paleo friendly veg. So… not really paleo but for all intents and purposes just as healthy or more so. And cheap. Did I mention dried beans are cheap? Having home made fermented hummus to snack on takes my family’s grocery budget down nearly $200 a month as opposed to not having it. Something to consider.
This is sort of like a green goddess hummus but as I was totally unprepared for my husband to love it (which he did) I thought I’d give it a more masculine name. Enter the jolly green giant. Not that I buy green giant kale and broccoli but I did grow up on frozen veg to supplement mum’s garden, so hey.
I basically cooked up a vat of dried chickpeas prior to Thanksgiving, in preparation for having near nothing healthy around to get us through all the prep. I actually made four hummus varieties: Fermented Hummus, Roasted Beetroot Hummus, Pumpkin Pie Hummus (FAIL. But I added more spices and pressed it onto a silicone mat into tiny cookies and then the family inhaled them) and this… the green variety. The spinach was looking sad so for fear of it ruining the ferment I left it out and went for the heartier winter veg: kale & raw broccoli.
Ingredients
125-150g dried chick peas, soaked overnight and cooked, drained and rinsed (makes about 2 cups) or one can.
2 cups packed kale
2 cups broccoli florets
½ cup whey from a batch of live yogurt or milk kefir, cultured vegetable juice from a previous ferment (I used the juices from a batch of fermented carrots)
1/4 cup tahini or 3 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds or toasted sunflower seeds
juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
handful fresh sage leaves from the garden
1 tablespoon sea salt, celtic sea salt or pink salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ – ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil (poured over top to seal out bacteria)
Method
I like to use dried chickpeas, so I measure out 125 grams (a little over 4oz) and soak them overnight. Pour into a bowl or container, fill with water and cover. In the morning, strain and rinse the chickpeas. Bring a pot of water to boil, pour in the chickpeas and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Strain the chickpeas in a colander and rinse.
While your chickpeas are cooking, wash, trim and chop kale & broccoli, 2 cups each
Add the chickpeas and all other ingredients to your food processor (hold out the olive oil) and process until smooth.
If serving immediately, leave out the culturing liquid. Spoon into a bowl and stir in 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, then drizzle a bit more on the top. Serve with crudite platter or chips.
If fermenting, hold out the olive oil until the very end. Transfer hummus to a 2 litre clip top jar, cover with the olive oil and clamp closed. Slowly rotate the jar until the olive oil seals the entire empty surface. Leave to ferment for 2 days. Once finished, stir the olive oil in and store in a 1 liter glass jar or BPA free container in the fridge.
Pro Tip: Make sure your jar is double the capacity of your hummus so you don’t wake up to the Blob invading your kitchen. It’ll be tasty but a sad sad waste… unless you’re the type to lick it off the counter.
Green Giant Kale & Broccoli Fermented Hummus
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
- Food Processor
- 4 quart glass jar with lid
Ingredients
- 125-150 g dried chick peas soaked overnight and cooked, drained and rinsed (makes about 2 cups) or one can.
- 2 cups packed kale
- 2 cups broccoli florets
- 4 garlic cloves
- ½ cup whey from a batch of live yogurt or milk kefir cultured vegetable juice from a previous ferment (I used the juices from a batch of fermented carrots)
- 1/4 cup tahini or 3 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds or toasted sunflower seeds
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- handful fresh sage leaves from the garden
- 1 tbsp sea salt celtic sea salt or pink salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ¼– ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil poured over top to seal out bacteria
Instructions
- I like to use dried chickpeas, so I measure out 125 grams (a little over 4oz) and soak them overnight. Pour into a bowl or container, fill with water and cover. In the morning, strain and rinse the chickpeas. Bring a pot of water to boil, pour in the chickpeas and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Strain the chickpeas in a colander and rinse.
- While your chickpeas are cooking, wash, trim and chop kale & broccoli, 2 cups each
- Add the chickpeas and all other ingredients to your food processor (hold out the olive oil) and process until smooth.
- If serving immediately, leave out the culturing liquid. Spoon into a bowl and stir in 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, then drizzle a bit more on the top. Serve with crudite platter or chips.
- If fermenting, hold out the olive oil until the very end. Transfer hummus to a 2 litre clip top jar, cover with the olive oil and clamp closed. Slowly rotate the jar until the olive oil seals the entire empty surface. Leave to ferment for 2 days. Once finished, stir the olive oil in and store in a 1 liter glass jar or BPA free container in the fridge.
Notes
