Edamame Hummus

'Tis the season of holiday gatherings, office parties and chips, dips, and cheese and crackers to munch on as you mingle, drink, and celebrate! You are hosting your own get-together or need to bring some kind of snack type food to a friend's party. 

It's so easy to just run to the store, pick up a container of ready made French Onion Dip, and dump it in a bowl. It's so hard to resist. It's rich, it's creamy, it's salty!  It goes perfectly with greasy potato chips! Oh...yeah! I could stand there all night and just keep dipping chip after chip into a bowl of dip! I could make a meal out of it. But.....it's also loaded with fat, calories, preservatives and artificial ingredients.

Here's something rich, creamy, a little salty and HEALTHY!! Edamame Hummus.  It's the perfect dip to serve for the holidays.  Edamame is naturally green (no food coloring needed).  Top it with a few strips of red bell peppers, and you have a gorgeous, festive, snack food everyone will love. The side benefit--it's packed with protein! Serve it with whole wheat pita triangles or raw veggies....

1 bag (12 oz) frozen shelled edamame
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp tahini
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 large red bell peppers, cut into 24 strips

Bring edamame to a boil in a medium sauce pan with enough water to cover, cook, stirring occassionally about 3 minutes.  Drain in a colander and run under cold water.  Pulse edamame, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, oil, salt, cumin and pepper in a food processor until it is the consistency of guacamole.  Add 1 tbsp of water at a time if it is too thick. Cover and refrigerate until party time.  Serve with baked pita chips and the red bell peppers for dipping.

And this is my Daily Cyn............