If your heart says chocolate but your head says (a bit of) protein, then make this chocolate hummus dip. It tastes sweet and rich and reminds me of chocolate pudding. We’ve been dipping strawberries and apple slices into it. Yum! The sourdough graham crackers in my cookbook would taste very good with this.
Chocolate hummus ingredients
The beans
I use chana dal for this—split chickpeas without the skins—for an extra creamy dip. My daughter Charlotte likes to make this with chickpeas that she peels (individually!) for a smoother texture but you can also just leave the skins on. Or use black beans. Both chickpeas and black beans will render a thicker version. (Go here for info on cooking beans in a pressure cooker.)
I grew Cherokee Trail of Tears black beans this year. The bean’s name comes from the Cherokee people who carried these beans in their pockets as the Federal Government forced them to march from their homelands in the South to Oklahoma in 1838-1839. Thousands died along the trail. Planting these beans helps keep the story alive. To prevent repeating history, we first need to know the history.
I am a bit obsessed with these beans. I picked them up at a garden share last November from a generous gardener and planted them this spring. They are very easy to grow, they fix the soil with nitrogen and the critters haven’t eaten them (unlike my tomatoes). After harvesting some last week, I planted more beans for a fall crop and they’ve already sprouted. I hope to make lots of this chocolate hummus with some of my fall crop.
The other chocolate hummus ingredients
- Use very good cocoa powder. That sort of goes without saying I suppose but it does make a difference.
- I used tahini for the batch pictured here because I had homemade tahini on hand. Charlotte made her last batch with almond butter. Use your favorite nut or seed butter.
- I have only tried this with maple syrup. I’d like to make it with dates. Chana dal are more watery than chickpeas or black beans so the drier dates would probably work very well.
- Homemade vanilla extract went into this batch. Gneiss Spice ships vanilla beans plastic-free. I used their affordable Grade-B beans for my current batch of vanilla and they worked really well. The website says the Grade-B beans contain more vanillin.
- The salt contrasts with and highlights the sweetness. I think it’s a must. You might want to start with less, taste it and adjust as necessary (especially if you use salted nut butter).
In a food processor, whir up the ingredients and taste as you go until you reach your desired consistency and flavor. That’s a bit of a non-recipe recipe so I’ve written one up that you can make as outlined or riff off depending on what you have on hand.
6-Ingredient Chocolate Hummus
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried chana dal or another type of bean such as chickpeas or black beans about 1¼ cups cooked
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons tahini or other seed or nut butter
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
Instructions
- Soak the chana dal for approximately 6 hours. Drain, rinse and cook the beans either in a pot on the stove, in a slow cooker or in a pressure cooker. Drain.
- Purée the chana dal, cocoa, tahini, maple syrup, vanilla and salt in the bowl of a food processor and process until blended and creamy. Adjust to taste if necessary.
- Store in a glass jar or container in the refrigerator for up to at least a week.
Notes
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