Basil Hummus

An awesome basil twist on traditional hummus. If you have a basil fan in the house this is going to send them over the moon. Full of flavor and an excellent party dip that will surprise everyone. It would be good with most chips and also veggies and cheese.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 cups sweet basil leaves, packed
~3 cloves garlic, smashed then minced
2 15-ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (1.5-2 lemons)
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt
Several dashes Tabasco**
1 teaspoon tomato paste
**Optional but Jason says it kicks it up a lot

Servings: Almost 2 cups of hummus

Instructions:
Heat the pine nuts in a small skillet on medium high heat. Stir them when they start to brown. When most of them have lightly browned, remove them from the pan into a bowl to cool. (Reserve a few pine nuts for garnish.)

In the bowl of a food processor (I used an immersion blender), place the basil leaves and the garlic. Pulse until finely chopped. Add the rinsed and drained garbanzo beans, most of the pine nuts, olive oil, water, lemon juice, salt, tomato paste, and a few dashes of Tabasco. Pulse several times, for several seconds each time, until the hummus is smooth. Add more Tabasco and salt or lemon juice to taste.

Serve with pita wedges, crackers, bread sticks or rustic bread. Veggies and cheese will also go well with this dip.

Recipe From: SimplyRecipes.com

I have a dirty secret, I love... or perhaps I should say I am obsessed with basil, well and garlic. There are just no better tastes out there, hm, well and cheese. But I love basil and this recipe pretty much takes hummus and makes it awesome by adding a basic pesto.

I think, but have yet to try, adding some parmigiana cheese to this dip which might make it even more awesome. If your a garlic fan, add a few extra cloves, I think I tossed in about 5 of them. I also left out the Tabasco sauce but Jason added some to his little private dish of the stuff and said it made it for him. But then he thinks everything needs hot sauce, everything. It disgusts me.

I also whipped this all up in my immersion blender. I rough chopped the basil and the garlic and then pulsed it a few times. Then I added all the liquids and pulsed this into a liquid. Added one can of beans, mixed it well and then added the other can of beans and blended it well. Thick and fantastic.

So if you have the space for a food processor, more power to you, but you can do pretty much anything a food processor can do with the Kitchen Aid Immersion blender and chopper attachment. Saves a LOT of space, also replaces a blender unless you make a lot of drinks.