I have not mentioned it but my 10 year old cousin was with us for the last couple of days and it was great fun having him around but when people say it is hard having children they are not joking. You just don’t realise how much attention they demand and I found it really hard to get my mind into what I needed to do when I did have some time. Don’t get me wrong I am not complaining he is a lovely little boy, really well behaved, thoughtful and pleasure to have around, I am just not sure I would want it all of the time.
This recipe was one I made at the weekend and I bumped it up the queue of recipes mainly because I love it so much. I have been wanting to make an artichoke hummus for ages and have had that jar of artichoke hears sitting there ready but never got round to making it. Then sunday morning when I was doing this I realised that I had run out of tahini, just after my mum had gone to the shop with a list of things to get, not including tahini and i was in my pjs and could not be bothered to go out.
It seems like a pain when something like that happens but it is the perfect chance to try something new and like this recipe you come up with something that tastes amazing and will definitely become one of my favourites. So when I realised I didn’t have any tahini I could have just left it out but instead I decided to replace it with a nut butter, looking in the cupboard I decided on almond nut butter and I am glad I did. The almonds only enhance the flavour of this hummus and just make it a little bit different.
The other great thing about this dip is from a nutritional point of view it is amazingly low on the glycemic scale for a number of reasons. Firstly artichokes basically have no effect on blood sugar due to their negligible carbohydrates so that keeps that low. Then there is the almonds which are actually shown to lower the effect that a meal has on blood sugar so the actual values could be lower than I have said. If you only make one of my dips then go for this one (or at least this is my favourite at the moment).
function printContent(id){
str=document.getElementById(id).innerHTML
newwin=window.open(”,’printwin’,’left=100,top=100,width=822,height=600′)
newwin.document.write(‘nn’)
newwin.document.write(‘Print Pagen’)
newwin.document.write(‘n’)
newwin.document.write(‘n’)
newwin.document.write(‘function chkstate(){n’)
newwin.document.write(‘if(document.readyState==”complete”){n’)
newwin.document.write(‘window.close()n’)
newwin.document.write(‘}n’)
newwin.document.write(‘else{n’)
newwin.document.write(‘setTimeout(“chkstate()”,2000)n’)
newwin.document.write(‘}n’)
newwin.document.write(‘}n’)
newwin.document.write(‘function print_win(){n’)
newwin.document.write(‘window.print();n’)
newwin.document.write(‘chkstate();n’)
newwin.document.write(‘}n’)
newwin.document.write(‘$(document).ready(function(){ $(“iframe”).remove();}) n’)
newwin.document.write(‘$(document).ready(function(){ $(“#contactInfo”).remove();}) n’)
newwin.document.write(‘n’)
newwin.document.write(‘n’)
newwin.document.write(‘n’)
newwin.document.write(str)
newwin.document.write(‘n’)
newwin.document.write(‘n’)
newwin.document.close()
}
Artichoke & Almond Hummus
Serves 8
Total Time: 10 mins
Ingredients
1 x 400g/15oz can of Chickpeas, drained and washed
100g Marinated Artichoke Hearts, plus marinating liquid
2 Garlic Cloves
2 tbs Almond Butter
2 tbs Lemon Juice
2-4 tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 tsp Salt
Instructions
1. Combine the chickpeas, artichoke hearts, garlic, almond butter, lemon juice, salt and 2 tbs oil in a food processor, scraping down sides as needed.
2. Add more oil and marinating liquid as required to get to the smoothness of dip that you want. I used 4 tbs of oil and about half the marinating liquid to get a smooth dip.
Nutrition
As I said above this dip is great for those people that monitor the glycemic index of recipes with an approximate GI of only 20 and an estimated GL of only 1 so when you want a low GL snack try this dip with a couple of oat cakes.
