Kale & Basil Hummus

I subscribe to Runner's World magazine and occasionally they have some good looking recipes in there. In particular, the last issue was promoting the new Runner's World Cookbook, so there was a special feature on a bunch of different things to eat! This recipe was one of them and I have to say, when I saw the name of it, I knew it was an immediate "must" for us. We usually have kale on hand, obviously we have plenty of basil from our herb garden, and we make hummus all the time. So to combine all of these ingredients into one recipe? I was amazed we hadn't thought of it before!

We ended up eating this on Wasa crackers for lunch this week and I have to say, the addition of kale made this hummus even more filling than usual. The bright green color of the kale and basil was of course attractive, but it was effective too! I felt like I was getting more nutrients than usual, but without having to eat kale in its original form (not that that's a bad thing). Two Wasa crackers, some hummus, and a handful of grapes, were actually extremely filling for lunch, if you can believe that! We would definitely make this again--next time we go to a potluck or dinner party, I think we will bring this hummus instead of something more complicated, like our Vietnamese Summer Rolls. The only downside of this recipe was that it kind of fried our food processor, which isn't that great anyways. So we ultimately had to transfer everything to the blender before finally getting it to come together. We really need a decent size food processor, but such is life. You can make this work no matter what blending device you have :)

Notes: We accidentally added too much water, so we added another half cup of chickpeas to balance things out. We also added extra tahini for consistency, and added lemon juice for taste.

Kale & Basil Hummus (adapted from Runner's World)
2 1/2 cups chickpeas
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup kale leaves
2 tbsp tahini
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
Salt, to taste
Water, for consistency

Combine chickpeas, olive oil, basil, kale, tahini, lemon juice and salt in a food processor or blender, mixing until thick. Begin to add water slowly, continuing to churn, until desired thickness/smoothness is achieved. Enjoy with Wasa crackers or Pita!

Recipe: Runner's World: Kale Basil Hummus

Isn't it pretty??