Holiday Frummus and Pumpkin Gingerbread

As much as I dread the stress of the holiday season, there is no denying its presence. For relief I go to the kitchen, and this weekend I’ve come up with two very nice recipes.

I have heard of frummus, but have never seen or eaten it, and the idea of fruity hummus is intriguing to me. I can’t imagine and certainly didn’t want anything sweet, so I decided cranberries would be perfect for my first frummus experiment. To make the frummus, I put together a low fat hummus recipe by using whole cranberry sauce for most of the oil and tahini. It is Holiday Frummus due to the addition of fresh cranberries and pistachios. (I set aside some chopped cranberries and pistachios for garnish. The rest were chopped up in the food processor, just so you know there are not chunks as big as the garnish in the actual frummus.) The final product isn’t quite as pink as I had hoped it would be, but it’s still a nice color. And how does it taste? It tastes great! It tastes like hummus with nice hint of tangy cranberry flavor. And I love the texture interest the pistachios give. I think almonds may be more appropriate for Thanksgiving and the pistachios are more appropriate for Christmas. Anyway, here is Holiday Frummus.



Holiday Frummus

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:
1 can (15 oz.) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ cup whole cranberry sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1 T. red wine vinegar
1 T. tahini
½ t. cumin
½ t. crushed red pepper
½ t. kosher or sea salt
¼ cup chopped fresh cranberries (plus extra for garnish)
¼ cup chopped raw pistachios or almonds (plus extra for garnish)

Directions:
Put in a food processor the chickpeas, cranberry sauce, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, tahini, and spices. Process until smooth. Add in ¼ cup fresh cranberries and ¼ cup pistachios and process until combined. Put into bowl and garnish with the remaining cranberries and pistachios.


What do you think? I love pumpkin hummus and have been making it for years. But what about apple cinnamon or pineapple jalapeno frummus? I don’t know…..


The next recipe is so exciting for me – Gluten Free Pumpkin Gingerbread. This is a recipe I found on cooking.com (which it got from Wild Oats Market) and adapted to replace the eggs, reduce the fat and sugar, and punch up the spices a bit. I also baked it in an 8x8 pan instead of a loaf. I must admit that my spice blend in this recipe made for one fantastic gingerbread! I must also admit that the batter in the middle of the pan did not firm up enough. I think another ½ to 1 cup of flour would make it perfect. Nonetheless, if you like a spicy, gingery gingerbread, I recommend using this spice combination in your own favorite recipe.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Gingerbread

Ingredients:
¼ cup canola oil
¼ cup applesauce
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup maple syrup
2 t. vanilla
2 enerG eggs
3 T. molasses
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 T. fresh grated ginger
1 cup oat flour
½ cup brown rice flour
½ cup buckwheat flour
2 t. baking powder
½ t. kosher or sea salt
1 t. cinnamon
1 ½ t. ground ginger
½ t. black pepper
¼ t. allspice
¼ t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/3 cup candied ginger, minced
2 T. turbinado sugar

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Light grease an 8x8 pan.

In a large bowl mix together the oil, applesauce, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, eggs, molasses, pumpkin puree, and fresh grated ginger.

In a separate bowl sift together the flours, baking powder, salt, and spices. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, then stir in the candied ginger.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake for 40 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Please let me know if you try either of these recipes.


I was away most of the weekend so I didn’t get to cook very much at all. This afternoon I went to the Texas Veggie Chili Cookoff and sampled some wonderful creations from around the state. It was a beautiful warm day, but not too warm for chili. I only saw one person I knew – Amanda from Walking the Vegan Line – hard at work in the Society of Peace booth. I hope she got some pictures because I didn’t take a single one. I did notice a local news crew there, so I'll watch and see if vegans get a plug tonight.

Have a great week, everyone!