Pizza Hummus

It's a long weekend here in Canada, and I'm currently on a train headed toward our nation's capital, Ottawa, for a wedding weekend!  The weather is supposed to be hot and sunny over the next few days so it should be a great weekend!

I had a bit of a rough start to the trip this morning, waking up at the ungodly hour of 4:30am to be at the train station by 6am for a 6:30 train.  Around the time our train was scheduled to arrive, they announced that it was actually cancelled due to an accident, and we'd be switched to a later (and much less comfortable) train that would allow me only 15 minutes to make my connecting train in Toronto.  I haven't taken a train in ages so I was a bit panicked when we arrived at the station and I had no idea where to go or how to get to my next train!  I followed a crowd down a set of stairs, carrying my giant heavy suitcase along with three other bags, only to realize at the bottom that the exit led out to the street.  I turned around to try to go back up the stairs against a swarm of people trying to go down.  Just when I was sure I was going to topple backwards with all my bags in tow, an extremely nice guy carrying his bicycle down the stairs saw me struggling, grabbed my suitcase, and carried it AND his bicycle backwards all the way back up the stairs for me.  I'm definitely not a girl who gets offended from offers of help from strong men - I was so grateful!  I eventually managed to figure out how to get to my train and hopped on with about 5 minutes to spare before it left, and before the lump in my throat started to turn into tears haha - I'd had a dream the night before that I missed my train so I was so worried it was going to come true!  Anyways, the rest of the trip should be smooth sailing now, and I'm really excited to see a bit of Ottawa and also Quebec, which I rarely get to visit!

As I have about four free hours on the train before we arrive, I wanted to share a quick snack recipe that I made a while ago and have been dying to share!  You probably know by now that I love making hummus, but I was a bit nervous about the idea of pizza hummus, which I'd seen in my Food Network magazine a while back.  I loved their buffalo wing hummus from the same issue though, so I decided to give this one a shot too, and I was so glad I did!

I noticed that Tessa from Handle the Heat recently wrote about this hummus too, so I thought now would be a good time to share it and spread the pizza hummus love further!  I made quite a few changes to the recipe though, as the original calls for 3 cups of chickpeas, which is an odd amount when working from canned chickpeas.  So I adjusted all the amounts to work with just  one regular can, and also added in some nutritional yeast, because what's a pizza hummus without cheesy flavour!

While it may seem odd, this hummus truly tastes like pizza, with just the right combination of tomato, herb, and cheese flavours.  Though the tomato paste gave it a rather unfortunate-looking pinkish hue, the taste totally made up for it!

I could not stop eating this hummus right after I made it, but I managed to force myself to put it in the fridge to save for later.  It still didn't last too long though!  I ate it with garden herb pita chips and I loved how the extra herbs in the chips enhanced the flavour of the pizza hummus.  I think I've seen parmesan herb pita chips before though, so if you can find those then they'd probably be an even better match!

Hope my fellow Canadians have a wonderful long weekend and get a chance to enjoy the sunshine!

Pizza Hummus

Adapted from Food Network

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 (540mL) can chickpeas

1/3 cup liquid from the chickpea can

3 tablespoon tahini

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1-1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

2 teaspoons olive oil

Additional salt and pepper for seasoning

Directions:

Add all ingredients except for the olive oil to the large bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth.  Add olive oil to feed tube and process as the oil slowly mixes in.  Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired; adjust any amounts to your liking (e.g. Add more dried herbs for a stronger herb flavour, add more nutritional yeast for a stronger cheesy flavour, add more tomato paste for stronger tomato flavour, etc.)