Being the non-conformist that I am, I add black beans to my hummus.

Okay, so it doesn’t exactly look appetizing, but believe me when I say it’s yummy.

Hummus is the Arabic word for chick pea—otherwise known as garbanzo bean—and is one of the oldest foods known, dating back to Egypt more than 7,000 years ago. Between hummus and the pyramids, those Egyptians really knew what they were doing.

Oddly enough, I didn’t discover this spectacular food stuff until sometime after college and it’s now a staple in our household—especially in the summer. It’s high in fiber and good fats not to mention quite delish. It can be a perfect snack or even meal on Meatless Monday or any day of the week. Plus, it’s fairly easy to make, especially if you have the right blender (I swear by my Vitamix).

I found a recipe about 10 years ago that I’ve since revised to suit my tastes. The addition of black beans was purely accidental—I slipped them in once when I was low on garbanzo beans.

Some find the garlic a bit excessive, but I could eat at least 15 garlic cloves (roasted, please) in one sitting. So you might want to start with one or two cloves. Same applies to the chives (hard to resist grabbing chives by the handful when they’re right out of your backyard garden).

[yumprint-recipe id=’45’]Change up the recipe by reducing garlic to one clove, eliminating the cayenne pepper and chives (stop there to make it “plain”) and replace with a red pepper or another fave veggie. I wonder if a shot of tequila would taste good?!

P.S. Please share your hummus variation in the comments section!

Bonus:

Here’s an awesome Green Divas Foodie-Phile podcast segment, which dispels the myth of “not getting enough protein as a vegetarian,” and shares some great vegetable-based protein sources. And hear GD Meg talk about making avocado brownies for Dr. Oz as an illustration of surprising sources of protein!

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