Edamame Avocado Hummus

I am continually aspiring to have more raw carrots in my life.  I’ve gone through a carrot transformation in my time on earth thus far. When I was little, I loved carrots dipped in ranch. Lots and lots of ranch.  I still do, honestly, though my mind won’t allow the same consumption of ranch as before.  

Then I went through a phase where I just ate them plain. I remember munching on carrots while studying for an ECON 101 test in college and afterwards being convinced that I had to eat carrots before every other ECON test.

Sometimes, I’ll still revert back to that plain-carrot-eating mood and contentedly crunch on those sweet little orange sticks for LONG time, but for the most part, that phase of my life is over.

Enter new phase: Carrots and hummus.

Hummus and I have not always been this close. For a while, it was one of those healthy foods and I knew I should like, but never did.  Then I discovered edamame hummus and things have never been the same.

I dip carrots in it.  I dip crackers in it.  I dip pita bread in it, and tortilla chips, and pretzels, and pretty much any other carbohydrate in my general area.  Chicken nuggets dipped in hummus doesn’t sound bad either. 

My two favorite kinds are the Eatwell and the Trader’s Joe's brand, though the Trader Joe’s version is just as good and about half the price.  

I’ve been snacking on it so consistently that Adam finally broke down and ate some. He enjoyed it, though he will never admit it, and I’d wager his professed love of said hummus will only go so far given that sometimes I try to kiss him after eating it and he’s like “Whoa garlicky edamame hummus breath!” Oh well.

Anyway, sometimes when you really love something, you want to try to recreate it for yourself.  There’s always a little bit of pressure in these situations because you’re afraid of it falling short of the original.  To the remedy this, I changed up the recipe.  In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, and my two favorite green foods, I decided to create edamame avocado hummus, which I figured would either be a horrible disaster or a raging success.

I’m pleased to say this is leaning more toward the success side.

The avocado adds a wonderful creaminess, and the fresh lemon juice adds bright kick of flavor.  (Make sure you measure out the lemon juice. I got a little squeeze happy with my lemon and added too much.)

Also, if you happen to have tahini, you should definitely use it here. I am intimidated by those huge $10 jars of tahini at the grocery store, so I used sesame seeds, which are cheaper and more likely to fit into my regular recipe rotation.

I was home for the weekend, and our town has only a Wal-Mart and a Food Lion, neither of which carries shelled edamame.  Thus, I spent about 30 minutes shelling edamame by hand.  

Worth it. 

Edamame Avocado Hummus

Ingredients

1 ½ cups frozen shelled edamame

1 small hass avocado, peeled and pitted

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 small clove garlic, smashed

3/4 teaspooon kosher salt

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 ½  tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

½ tsp sesame seeds

Directions

Cook frozen edamame in the microwave for 3-4 minutes.

Place all ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth.  Add another drizzle of water and olive oil if the mixture is still too chunky. 

Recipe adapted from The Food Network.