Spicy Oven Roasted Pumpkin Hummus

Wow – this one surprised me. I mean, knew it would be good..I hoped it would be really good. But I never expected it to be this great! I can’t say enough about the impact cooking dried garbanzos has on the flavor of the hummus. If you haven’t tried using them yet, run ((fastly)) to the store, spend $1.19 on a pound of dried garbanzos and pick one of THESE Food for a Year hummus recipes to try. You will be pleasantly surprised ((and hooked)).

Add some perfectly roasted pumpkin pie pumpkin, a small heap of adobo Hatch chili powder and some applewood smoked sea salt – and you have the makings of a showstopper.

I started the process of making this hummus 2 days early by roasting a pumpkin pie pumpkin. It can totally me done at one time, I just spread it out over a few days.

If you haven’t roasted your own pumpkin, this time of year is your chance!

Simply cut the pumpkin in half.

Seed it and clean out the slimy sticky junk.

And if you are planning to use your pumpkin in a savory dish, lightly season the pumpkin and rub it with a few drops of olive oil before popping it into the oven.

I always roast my pumpkin cut-side down for 25 minutes or until slightly soft throughout but still firm.

After roasting, I allowed the pumpkin to cool and then refrigerated until ready to use.

For the garbanzos, this time I only used 1 ½ c of dried beans, a few garlic cloves, one bay leaf, a drizzle of olive oil and 8 c of water. Oh, and my secret ingredient when cooking dried beans: a squeeze of spicy brown mustard in the pressure cooker canister.

I always cook my beans the same way: 45-55 minutes (depending on amount and type of beans) on high pressure, natural pressure release. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, follow package instructions for the stove top cooking method.

After the garbanzos were cooked, I reserved about 1 ½ c of cooking liquid ((and stuck it in the fridge overnight)).

Next, I drained the garbanzos and added 2 T tahini paste, then placed them into a large sealable bowl. In addition to the beans, I added half of the roasted pumpkin ((without skin)), a few T of olive oil, 2 t adobo Hatch chili powder and several pinches of applewood smoked sea salt.

I covered and refrigerated the beans & pumpkin over night to give everything a chance to get to know each other and decide they wanted to get married and live happily ever after. It worked. haha!

I placed everything in my food processor, added the reserved cooking liquid & another little drizzle of olive oil and puréed the FIRE out of it all.

Now is a good time for me to let you in on my trick for making hummus creamy – but light on the fat & calories. Are you ready to hear?? It’s my reserved cooking liquid!

It sure isn’t pretty, but it does works a miracle in hummus. Most traditional recipes use olive oil to reach the smooth & creamy consistency that makes hummus so irresistible. I am looking to lighten up one of my favorite snacks – so I used 1 -2 T of oil for the entire recipe ((including cooking liquid)) and used 1½ c of the reserved liquid to reach me perfect texture and creaminess. Perfection and my pants still fit – I call that a good day! ((This is the same method I used in my OTHER hummus recipes too))

David, Brod & I loved it. Shep, on the other hand would NOT try it, haha! Oh well, more for me. I didn’t even ask Gracie and Kade…a mom can only handle so much rejection!