Paleo for athletes: hummus

For those not owning a copy of Paleo Made Easy, I title paleo recipes containing sweet potatoes “paleo for athletes” because sweet potatoes are an excellent post-workout muscle glycogen replenisher.

Chickpeas, being legumes, are not part of a paleolithic diet.  This is bad news for all those people who love to eat hummus with veggies as a “healthy snack”.   To the hummus lovers out there who have turned to a paleolithic lifestyle have no fear!!!  This is a delicious hummus made from paleo ingredients!  I’m partial to eating this with strips of yellow, red, and orange bell pepper, but honestly it is amazing with vegetables period.  You could even take the paleo “bread” recipe in Paleo made easy and make little tea sandwiches with this hummus and thin slices of cucumber.  Just a creative thought 🙂  If you are serving this hummus as an appetizer for a party, place the hummus in a decorative serving dish and sprinkle it with hot smoked paprika.  Either make a well in the middle and drizzle in some extra olive oil, or drizzle extra olive oil around the edge.  Makes for a beautiful presentation.

Ingredients:

1 lb. eggplant (I picked up local, white eggplant)

1 lb. sweet potato

1/4 cup tahini (feel free to make your own sesame seed paste from scratch)

1/4 cup lemon juice

4 large cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup olive oil

Kosher (or sea) salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Slice eggplant in half lengthwise and brush with olive oil.  Bake the eggplant, cut side down, and sweet potato on a baking sheet covered in foil at 400°F.  Eggplant should take about 30 minutes, the sweet potatoes 60 minutes.  Once cooked scoop the eggplant and sweet potato flesh from the skin and add to a food processor along with the tahini, lemon juice, and garlic.  Blend ingredients until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  I used about 1 tsp. kosher salt and 5 turns of my pepper grinder.  While the food processor is running slowly drizzle in the olive oil until well combined.  Yield is approximately 4 cups of hummus.

Tags: Paleo