No Bean Paleo Pumpkin Hummus

Don’t you just love that name…meatified!?!!! It just makes me want to search the Meatified website and make a big juicy and meaty pot roast!  Rach from Meatified has such a beautiful website with some delicious recipes. I get lost looking at her food photography on her page! She has put together a recipe that will satisfy that Pumpkin itch and leave your belly satisfied and full of Paleo Pumpkin Hummus…oh and with no beans! Cause we all know friends don’t let friends eat beans! Please welcome my friend Rach from Meatified!!!

I think if I ever wrote a memoir of my former vegetarian days, it would probably be titled something cheesy like “Hummus: A LOVE STORY”. Because, boy, could I chow down on the stuff. I think it’s safe to say that I was bordering on the obsessive. I can’t remember how I first came to the realization that a plain ol’ bean could be transformed into something creamy, tangy and ridiculously delicious, but once I did, I’d hazard a guess that approximately 347% of my meatless meals probably featured hummus.

Well, ok, that might be a teensy bit of an exaggeration. But only a little. I really, really liked the stuff. And then came Paleo. Well, actually, first came the misery of Hashimoto’s Disease. Paleo definitely helped to alleviate the symptoms of my thyroid problems, but it’s safe to say that it also destroyed my hummus dreams. If there was ever a reason to lament the loss of legumes, the absence of hummus in my life was it.

When people began telling me that you could make hummus from zucchini, I flat out refused to believe them. I mean, there was no WAY that a squash was going to replace a bean. Stop taunting me with your Paleo lies! And then one day, desperate for my dip-fix, I caved. I made zucchini hummus. And the hummus-afficionado in me became so ecstatic that it’s a good job I live in the middle of nowhere. The perks of country life? No one can see you dance around your kitchen like a flailing toddler. Yay.

Since Fall is supposedly coming but it’s still in the 90s for me temperature wise, I’m not quite ready to pumpkin spice ALL THE THINGS! But I did want to get my pumpkin habit started on time, so I flavored this batch of no bean Paleo hummus with pumpkin puree. It adds a gentle sweetness, a vibrant color and even a little extra snazzy creaminess to the original recipe. Top that with a little smoked paprika and this is one heck of a dip! Best part? It will take you all of 2 minutes to make if you’ve got a mini food processor. Let’s face it: nothing beats fast, healthy AND tasty in the kitchen!

No Bean Paleo Pumpkin Hummus
makes just over 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 cup peeled & chopped zucchini
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbl extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to a mini food processor.
2. Process until everything is combined and the texture is as smooth as you like – that’s it! Drizzle with a little extra olive oil for prettiness before serving.

A former vegetarian, Rach at Meatified originally came upon the Paleo lifestyle while looking for a way to improve her health after years of Hashimoto’s disease. She writes original recipes that are grain and sugar free while trying to finally figure out how to work the camera she shamelessly “borrowed” from her husband. When she’s not in the kitchen, she can usually be found planning her perfect future mini farmstead in gloriously overly-exaggerated detail.

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Recipe shared on: Real Food Forager and Healthy Roots Happy Soul