cheap eats [white bean hummus]

I love hummus, own a food processor, and have basic kitchen skills, meaning I should have been making hummus at home for years. My problem is that I lack tahini, and have never had the initiative to look up where to buy it, figure out how to use it, etc. What I do have at home is white beans: cannellini, great northern, navy, you name it I've got it. I've been moving half my pantry around with me since college, so using up canned goods in a priority in my house.

One of my favorite cooking pastimes is googling whatever ingredients I have perishing in the fridge and seeing what recipes utilize my leftovers. I have some cilantro approaching wilty-ness, and some vegetables in need of a dip. I started with this recipe from food network, but of course wanted to make it healthier. I replaced the sour cream with fage 0% greek yogurt, and left out the olive oil.

Into a food processor, toss:
1 can rinsed and drained cannellini beans (or any white bean really)
1 bunch cilantro (I'd say I used 1/3 cup)
1 garlic clove
1/2 t cayenne pepper (I used a bunch more, love the spice!)
1 T greek yogurt
juice of 1/2 lime

Blend blend blend until it's super creamy, then add salt and pepper to taste. With the motor running, you could add olive oil to reach your desired consistency, but I just reserved a bit of the bean juice to use for that purpose.

I searched a bit more and found that my fave food blogger did her own version of a cilantro lime white bean hummus (recipe is almost identical to the food network version). Damn she makes bean paste look good.

I'm currently in a high-protein eating phase, and this will get you 500 calories, 77g of carbs, 35g of protein, and 35g of fiber, with just 7g of sugar. Split it up over the week with some raw veggies for a wonderful afternoon snack at work; hard to beat that fiber protein punch!