Recipe Test: White-ish Hummous Perfected

After several attempts and tests, I have finally arrived at a recipe for a "white hummous" for my holiday party table.  As with the other hummous recipes I have posted, I am using the term hummous very loosely.  In fact, this one really has no relation to hummous at all.  And it really isn`t white either.  Actually it is kind of caramel coloured.  Oh well.  My first attempt made use of organic canned white kidney beans. I found the resulting texture way too mushy and smooth, and I was looking for something a bit more rustic. In my second and third attempts I used dried white kidney beans, which I soaked over night and then cooked in lots of water for what seemed like an eternity the next day.

Dry beans do tend to expand to about 3 times their original size once soaked, so you need to factor this in when measuring out your beans to soak and cook. Basically, this means planning that about 1 cup of dried beans will yield about 3 cups cooked beans, 2 cups of dried beans will yield approximately 6 cups of cooked beans and so on....

Before soaking the dried beans, I recommend placing them in a colander, so you can sort through them and remove any tiny pebbles or other miscellaneous debris, and then rinse under cold water. You then need to soak most beans in three times their volume of cold water for 6-7 hours before cooking.

Once the beans have soaked, drain and rinse them, and add 2-3 times the volume of the beans in cooking water to the pot. Bring the water to a slow boil and let cook for approximately 60-90 minutes or until the beans are tender. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of the beans you are using.

One important thing to note is to NOT add salt to the beans while you are cooking them, as this will cause the beans to harden. Also don’t add any acidic acid ingredients (such as tomatoes, vinegar or wine) until the beans have cooked through and are soft. Once your beans are cooked, you can cook with them right away or freeze them for future use.

White Hummous with Caramelized Onions & Thyme

1.5 cups cooked white kidney beans
1/4 cup chicken stock
2-3 spigs of thyme, pulled and finely chopped (rosemary is nice here also)
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large cooking onion
1-2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat a small to medium sized frying pan over medium-high heat. Peel, half and thinly slice onion. Add olive oil to the pan. When a drop of water sizzles when dropped onto the pan, add onions and stir to coat with the oil. Add a pinch of salt to the cooking onions, as salt can aid to draw the moisture out of the onions and cause it to evaporate, thus speeding the caramelization process.

Continue to cook onions, stirring frequently, watching the onions become softer and their colour become browner. This is a good thing. Brown stuff = flavour. Add in cloves of garlic and continue cooking. If onions and garlic start to stick to the pan, reduce heat slightly and add in a few drops of water. Continue cooking until onions are very reduced in size and quite brown and crispy but not burnt. Remove from pan, and set aside to cool slightly.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine kidney beans, thyme, chicken stock and caramelized onions. Process until all ingredients are combined and desired texture is reached, approximately 1-2 minutes.

Serve with pita chips, lavash or whatever other cracker you have on hand. Enjoy!