I mentioned last week that I was excited to try out hummus with a black bean base instead of chickpeas. That's what I did this week. There's a black bean dip recipe on page 93 of Bittman but this is really just him hummus recipe (also page 93) with some ingredient swaps.
I was forward thinking enough this time to actually start with dry beans rather than canned ones. I used 1 cup of dry black beans and soaked them in another few cups of water for the day. I should probably have soaked them in more, as they grew to fill the three-cup jar I had them soaking in. The soaking softened them up but they still needed to be cooked, of course. I threw them into a saucepan with a bunch more water for about an hour with some salt and two bay leaves. (I don't really know what bay leaves taste like, but I've seen them with black beans before so it seemed worth a shot.)
Once the beans were soft, they got put in the food processor along with 3 cloves of garlic, juice from 2 limes, 1/2 tsp cumin (approx), and salt and pepper. I then proceeded to blend it as smooth as my blades would go.
This turned out pretty well, but it's a bit boring. I remembered thinking that this might be the case when I came up with this idea. Bittman suggests roasted red peppers with the bean dip, which I think would be good, or tomatoes, which I think would not have enough character. I had considered roasted jalapeño peppers as an option -- I almost went for a thai chile but it didn't seem thematic -- but when I went to the store today I had not remembered to buy any. So it's sitting in my fridge, pretty good, but a little bit boring.
Of course, later, sifting through my vegetables I found that I had outsmarted myself; I picked up a pair of jalapeños specifically for this task when I went shopping earlier this week! I'll have to add them to the mix.
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