Black Bean Hummus Sandwich

Since my recent interest in food and nutrition, I've been reading/watching documentaries about the subject. One of the major points that comes up every single time is to stop eating processed foods as much as possible. I know it sounds like a no brainer; of course foods that can sit on our shelf for a year and are jam-packed with salt, sugar, corn syrup, and other taste enhancers can't be good for us. Still, I found that at least 80% of the food I was consuming BC (before cooking) was considered processed. Yikes! So with a conscious effort to replace some of my staple snacks, I ventured out for a homemade hummus recipe and stumbled upon one that I absolutely love. It's so easy and delicious that I plan on keeping it in my fridge at all times! The recipe is for a black bean hummus that I found off of allrecipes.com and is great traditionally with crackers or used as a spread in a sandwich.


The recipe (including my tweaks) calls for the following:
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 15 ounce can of black beans, include liquid
1 medium sized lemon, squeezed (juice only)
2 Tablespoons tahini
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
5 Greek olives

Investing in a food processer is ideal for this recipe. Luckily, my handy dandy roommate already hade one :). I just tossed all the ingredients in and pressed the on button. After dishing, I garnished it with more olives. Within minutes, I had completed another successful dish!

The next day for lunch, I put together a black bean hummus sandwich with sprouts and cucumber slices. It was so good and quick to prepare, I continued to make the sandwich every day for lunch. The recipe makes about 8 servings so it's ideal for anyone who plans out their weekly meals. The best part is, it passed the boyfriend test!   

If you're not a huge olive person, the original called for half a teaspoon of salt. Try to use iodized salt if you choose to go that route. It also called for lemon juice but I find that juice squeezed from the lemon has a little more zing. If you'd like, it also calls for a garnishing of paprika- but that's all for looks.