Beet Green Hummus

Bret would be the first person to tell you how much I hate wasting food.  I feel so much regret when I discover fruit or vegetables in the fridge that I forgot about and have now since gone bad.  I try to maximize every ingredient so that I can avoid wasting food and this also gives me an excuse to get creative in the kitchen.

On Wednesday morning, I took a quick look in the fridge and realized that my leftover beet greens were finally starting to wilt a little bit.  I knew that I would have to utilize them that evening or else I'd have to toss them, which I desperately wanted to avoid.  I've used beet greens in my kitchen by either lightly sauteeing them, like I did for the beet green and bacon pizza, or by even eating them raw as part of a salad.  Since I already had a meal planned for that evening that included grilled chicken sausage, Olivia's Organics Caesar salad and corn on the cob, I wanted to make a small side dish with the beet greens. 

During the day, I thought about it and I was leaning towards making some kind of pesto or dip with the beet greens when inspiration hit - hummus!  I've made a very basic and traditional hummus in the past so I thought that this would be something simple to play around with.

When I got home from the gym, I chose the freshest leaves of the remaining beet greens and gave them a rinse.

I coarsely chopped up the beet greens and also removed the stems.

I then drained and rinsed a can of garbanzo beans and added the beans to the food processor.

I then added about half of the chopped beet greens to start.  I wasn't sure how much I would use and I didn't want to add too much.

I also grabbed a bunch of different spices from my ever-expanding spice collection, including white pepper, cumin, coriander, onion powder, garlic powder and salt.  I thought I had some fresh garlic on hand but realized that I left it at my friend Abby's house when I used them to make guacamole at her pool party.  

I then pulsed the hummus and it resulted in a gritty paste.  I added a bit of olive oil but that didn't seem to help.  I realized that I must have added too much beet greens so I decided to add some more garbanzo beans.  I looked in my pantry and realized that I didn't have anymore but I did find a can of cannellini beans.  I  drained the beans but I didn't rinse them to add a bit of moisture to the hummus.  

I pulsed again and finally I was getting a hummus consistency.  I tasted it and added a bit more salt and garlic powder to taste, along with some olive oil to loosen up the consistency.

This time it was perfect.  I must admit that maybe I ate a few spoonfuls immediately because it really tasted great.  It had a wonderful bean flavor from the garbanzo and cannellini beans but also the slightest touch of bitterness from the beet greens.  

We ate the hummus on Wednesday night with some sliced cucumbers but since I used two cans of beans there was a lot leftover!  

I made a tasty hummus sandwich yesterday for lunch with chicken sausage and lots of fresh veggies and it was even better the next day.  I was happy to utilize the rest of my beet greens so that they didn't go to waste and the end result was a tasty beet green hummus.  

Do you have any "kitchen sink" recipes to utilize leftover ingredients in your fridge?