Dinner tonight takes the flavors of hummus and morphs them into a savory little cake that gets baked in the oven. These Hummus Cakes are started by processing chickpeas, green onions, tahini (if you don't care for this or have a hard time finding it, you can use natural peanut butter), fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil and garlic in a food processor. Don't puree this mixture smooth - you want it combined, but there should be some chunky texture to it. Whole chickpeas are stirred into this mixture for a bit more substance and mouth feel. As this mixture is a little sticky, I used a smallish ice cream scoop to portion out the mixture and then flatten the balls into patties on the baking sheet. Wet your fingers if you find the mixture is sticking too much when you are forming the patties. These go into the oven and bake until they firm up and a golden shell forms on the outside. We decided to serve these savory cakes with some chunky marinara and called it dinner - I already have an idea to use the leftovers with tomorrow nights dinner! I also think you could minify these tangy cakes, bake them a few minutes less and turn them into a divine little appetizer.
As always, love your blog! I also made these hummus cakes from vegetarian times, but i made them in little muffin tins for an appetizer. They turned out really really dry and crumbly, so I'm not sure if mini-fying them did this or if I did it?
ReplyDeleteJoe - I love hummus, and I think that this is a great variation on an already good thing. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteAmanda - I don't think we found them to be crumbly, however they are on the drier side - which is why we had them with the chunky marinara. I could move them or pick them up and they didn't fall apart. There is no "real" binder here, so I could see how it may happen depending on how the ingredients were measured. Hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteEd - we are being swayed into the hummus camp! We are really starting to enjoy it now that we make it rather than trying to like the pre-made stuff.
This recipe is so creative. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI have also copied the oatmeal brownies, they look fantastic!
First time visiting your blog, and I love the idea of hummus cakes! I just made baba ganouj, (recipe over at my blog) and am wondering if I could turn it into something like this. I'm thinking I just might add some chickpeas and onions to the leftovers and give it a whirl. Would never have thought of it before reading your post. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the note Joe! And I will copy you and use the rest of the mini-hummus muffins as a surprise in some soup. Fantastic idea! I think I might have baked them too long which dried them out a little too much, since they were definitely wet enough when i put them in.
ReplyDeleteHelene - Let me know if you end up trying it!
ReplyDeleteToni - Thanks!
Amanda - We both ended up really liking them in the soup... now I wish I had some more!