Bean Spreads - Easy to Make, Easy to Dry

Some people wonder how to make a tasty sandwich without any meat or cheese. I'll tell you how: beans! Cooked beans can be used to make a wide variety of really tasty spreads, perfect for sandwiches but also good for crackers, carrots, and cucumbers. For a sandwich, spread on one slice of bread and add any vegetables you ordinarily enjoy, such as tomatoes, lettuce, sprouts, red onion, and avocado.

Most folks are probably familiar with hummus, the Middle Eastern garlicky garbanzo (aka chickpea) spread. Many grocery stores now sell tubs of prepared hummus in the deli or boxes of instant hummus on the shelf. Hummus is so easy to make at home, though, I never buy anything but the ingredients to make it from scratch. I also won't buy prepared hummus in the store because I like my version better than theirs.


Chile's Lowfat Hummus

2 cloves garlic
15 oz can garbanzos OR 1 1/4 cups cooked garbanzos
Juice from can or cooking pot
2 tbs lemon juice
1/4 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbs sesame tahini or peanut butter

Put garlic in food processor. Whir for about 10 seconds to mince.
Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth and creamy.
Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.
Blend in a little bean juice if necessary to thin the hummus to make it spread more easily.
Use as a sandwich spread on whole wheat bread or in whole-wheat pitas with alfalfa sprouts, sliced tomato and red onion.

Note: Using sesame tahini will give the hummus a traditional middle Eastern flavor. If you don't have any tahini, though, peanut butter works fine. Your hummus will have an Americanized flavor.


I made a double batch of hummus yesterday and dehydrated most of it for our trip. There was just enough left over for my sweetie to take hummus sandwiches in to work today.

This morning, I tried a new recipe for a Roasted Red Pepper - White Bean Dip. I modified it to make it fatfree and to use my basil cubes*. Here's my version.


Great Northern Bean-Red Pepper Sandwich Spread

2 cloves garlic
1 can Great Northern white beans, drained
1 roasted red pepper, peeled and seeded
2 basil cubes*, thawed (May substitute 1/4 cup fresh basil)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Put garlic in food processor. Whir for about 10 seconds to mince.
Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth and creamy.
Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.
Blend in a little bean juice if necessary to thin the spread.
Use as a sandwich spread on whole wheat bread or in whole-wheat pitas with alfalfa sprouts, sliced tomato and red onion.


I spread this on my plastic dehydrator tray liners and let it dry at 135 degrees this morning. (Parchment paper can be used instead of the trays.) After about 3 hours, it dries up quite a bit as you can see in the tray on the right. However, the inside of the trays don't seem to dry as rapidly as the outside so I crumble it up (tray on left) to ensure the moist parts dry totally.

To rehydrate, I'll add warm water to some of the dried mix, stir, and let it sit a few minutes. I don't have measurements for this so I'll be sure to add just a little bit of water to start. A mix that is too thick is easy to thin. We'll have tasty sandwiches on the road.


*The basil cubes are my fatfree vegan answer to "What can I do with a ton of basil if I don't want to make pesto with oil, nuts, and cheese?!" I roast fresh tomatoes and remove the skins when they are cool enough to handle. These go in the food processor with lots of fresh basil. The dark green puree is poured into ice cube trays to freeze and then popped out to store in plastic bags in the freezer. They are great added to soups, stews, and rice dishes.