Banana breakfast hummus (Secret Recipe Club)

Banana Breakfast Hummus

It's time for another installment of the  Secret Recipe Club (SRC).

Here's how the SRC works: each month I am assigned another member's blog (a different one each month). I then pick any recipe from that blogger's site, make it and write about it here. There's also a link hop at the end of the post so that I (and you) can check out all the other participating blogs and their great recipes.

I joined this group a few months ago and it's been really fun, giving me an opportunity to check out a lot of blogs that normally wouldn't appear on my radar.

My assigned blog this month -- The Mommy Bowl -- is a great example of that.

You see, Deanna of The Mommy Bowl cooks a whole lot of gluten-free, dairy-free and often vegan dishes.

(Yes, if you know The Ninj, you are laughing hysterically at this point, because you know I like to throw bacon and cheese into nearly everything and have more than once referred to myself as The Meatasaurus.)

But come, come, I am nothing if not flexible. And I do like to try new things.

I was very excited to find a recipe for homemade Nutella in Deanna's recipe but, alas, it had already recently been covered by another SRC member. (But don't think I'm not whipping up a batch of that in the near future anyway.)

What I decided to make was something Deanna called Banana Bread Beany Spread, which is really cute. Basically, it's a breakfast hummus, which really got me jazzed. I mean, I love hummus (especially on veggie-based pizzas!) but it never even occurred to me that you could give it a breakfasty twist.

And regular readers know that I'm also continually on the lookout for quick, easy and portable ideas for breakfast: this hummus is all three!

There's not much to it: throw all the ingredients into a food processor, whirl it all up until it's smooth and then spread it on toast.  I used it on cinnamon raisin toast and it was excellent. I bet it would also make a great "dip" for apple wedges.

I only modified Deanna's original recipe a tad: I included a little liquid as my hummus was turning out a bit too thick, but if your banana is super ripe, you might not have the same issue. I also increased the number of dates and decreased the amount of chickpeas slightly, based on some comments on the original post.

Regardless of whether you're a meatasaurus or a vegetarian, you will dig this hummus, so whip some up for your next breakfast!

Banana Breakfast Hummus (slightly adapted from The Mommy Bowl)

Ingredients:
3-4 dates, coarsely chopped
1 ripe banana
3/4 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1-2 tablespoons water (optional)

Directions:
Place the dates, banana, chickpeas, vanilla and nuts in a food processor and process until smooth. If the hummus is too thick, add some water, a little at a time, until it reaches your preferred consistency.

Serve on toast.