Hummus {cashews}

There haven't been many bean-inspired dishes in my life until recently. I've been making the basic dishes that you may know, mostly black beans and lentils for soups and salads, but I steered clear of garbanzo beans until my younger son developed a liking for hummus.  Which lead me to make my own.

This recipe for hummus works using soaked cashews instead of garbanzo beans. If you're following SCD, use cashews because garbanzo beans, also known as chick peas, are avoided. Also, sesame seeds are not allowed until after at least a few months of success with SCD, so you may want to try this recipe after several months into the diet. Another option is to use soaked white beans in place of the cashews. You can find out how to prepare beans in my recipe for Simple White Bean Soup. If you use beans, make sure they're soaked overnight and cooked until soft. If you're not eating nuts or beans, you can try my hummus recipe using cauliflower, found in my cookbook Cooking for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

Hummus tastes great with salads, veggies, crackers, and other snack food. I like to dip crunchy vegetables in hummus. Olives, pickled onions, and crackers are good too. Another good thing—you can store hummus in the refrigerator for quite a while. I store it for up to a week and it stays fresh. It does firm up in the cold storage, so take it out about 10 minutes ahead of time to warm up to room temperature.