Earth-Friendly Eats: Spinach Hummus
Written By Natalie Hester
Adult Services Librarian
Finally spring is here, and much needed after that endless snowy and icy winter. I have tried to go into this season with a sense of intentionality. One way I am doing this is with an awareness of the food I am seeking and eating.
If you don’t know, Earth Day is on April 22nd. I have a unique fondness for Earth Day beyond the fact that I care about the longevity of this planet (duh, that’s a given). In middle school and high school I was part of my school’s environmental club, Roots & Shoots. We helped implement recycling and composting initiatives at the school and took the time to educate ourselves about the ways in which we can be more Earth-friendly in our daily lives. I even had the honor of hearing Jane Goodall speak when she visited my school!
I won’t go into a tangent about how there are environmental problems so vast that can’t be solved by individual action. But at the same time, the way we live our lives does matter for the Earth and for our bodies. And you know what’s really good for the average human body but is also sustainable and low-impact? Vegetables and beans. So this month I’m testing out a recipe from The Bean Cookbook by Tami Hardeman.
This cookbook has loads of creative and tasty recipes, but this time I’m going for a spinach hummus. I love hummus but I rarely make it, and this was so easy that I don’t know why I haven’t. Just a few fresh ingredients and a blender, really.
The most tedious part of this process was removing the shells from the chickpeas. You could skip this step if you don’t want the hassle (it really just makes your hummus smoother), but I typically rinse them in a colander and then roll them dry in a clean kitchen towel. This gets a lot of those outer shells off, and the stragglers can be peeled off individually.
The chickpeas, olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, spinach, and garlic go in the blender until creamy. I added salt and pepper (and more garlic than it called for) and some water for a smoother texture and improved flavor. And that’s it! Easy, few ingredients, and genuinely tasty enough to probably eat too much of it. Yes, it looks like guacamole. Or maybe even the Genovian pear sorbet from The Princess Diaries. But it is really good and came together so quickly. Let us know if you try this recipe and what you think!
If you find yourself in want of more information about the Earth, its current state, and our impact on it, check out some of these books from our collection that I’ve been reading! I welcome any recommendations of yours in the comments.
With that, I wish everyone a happy spring from TFPL! Thank you for reading, cooking, and connecting with us!
Leave a Reply