Recipe: Spinach-Artichoke Hummus

As a big fan of somewhat sinful spinach-artichoke dip, I was fascinated by the taste of its healthy yet delicious hummus cousin at a beer tasting party several weeks ago, and the one I tasted was packaged product from Costco (impressive, Costco!). So I figured I could recreate the concoction with my friend the food processor to partner with some pita chips.

I based the mine off this recipe from Give Me Some Oven! but chose to sauté my fresh spinach to enhance its flavor like in my favorite spinach-artichoke dip recipe. This version is quite spinachy, so you might cut back on the spinach if you prefer. Some similar recipes contained as little as 2 Tbsp. fresh spinach, but I didn't think that merited putting spinach in the name.

Step 1: Saute spinach. Fresh beats frozen, but frozen would do.

Step 2: Blend everything in the food processor. Easy peasy. Look how healthy this tasty stuff is with lots of veggies and a little ground sesame seed (tahini)

Now that I've mastered black bean and spinach-artichoke hummus, I need to work on my classic hummus skills. Playing with more unusual varieties, like maybe red pepper, walnut, or black-eyed pea, sounds like more fun at the moment though.

Spinach-Artichoke Hummus

4 cups fresh spinach, loosely packed, stems removed

1 Tbsp. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 (15 oz.) can chickpeas, drained (juice reserved)

1/2 cup canned artichoke hearts

2 Tbsp. tahini

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a medium skillet to medium-high heat. Add olive oil and then spinach. Cook spinach, stirring constantly, until wilted. Set aside spinach and cool.

Place garlic cloves in a food processor and chop until fine. Combine remaining ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.  If you desire a thinner consistency, add in a few extra tablespoons of the reserved chickpea juice.

Flavors will enhance as chilled in fridge.