Edamame Hummus Dip

Recently I've been doing a lot of daydreaming about what I want to do after culinary school. Maybe because people keep asking me, or because graduation day is approaching way too quickly, but I have so many ideas I don't know what to do with them all. I have an ongoing list of restaurant names on my iPhone that I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes to jot down (those aren't usually the best ones, but at the time they seem beyond brilliant) One of my dreams is to open a super girly spot (not aesthetically though of course, just conceptually) where people can go to actually get a light and healthy meal. Surprisingly these places are really hard to find. I would have less healthy/ heartier items to appeal to the hungrier folk, but a place like this really needs to exist everywhere. We kind of have one at Elon, and it does really well; always filled with girls too of course, but it doesn't have the ambiance I'm looking for.

It's a fact; girls love appetizers. We love dip, and small things that you can pop into your mouth. Just snacks in general really. I think its safe to say that girls snack/graze significantly more than boys, right? Anyway, I want to open a spot that has killer brunch and lunch (we would serve dinner too. can't expect to stay open without dinner) and an amazing terrace or outside seating paired with an extensive app, salad and wine list with small and light desserts. (because every girls WANTS dessert, but only wants a bite, right?)

Thus, I have made it a new goal of mine to try and invent and test out as many different dips as possible. It also helps that I bought a mini food processor over the summer when I was having a bad day and have been loving it ever since. I have made three kinds of hummus so far, and all of them have been really good, but I think this edamame hummus has been my favorite because it's so light.

Edamame Hummus Dip

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups low sodium chickpeas/garbanzo beans 
1 1/2 cups cooked edamame (I used the frozen kind)
1 1/2 cloves of garlic

3 tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons lemon juice

6 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon salt 

1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil 

Start by mincing the garlic in the food processor and then add the tahini and blend until smooth (you will need to constantly scrape down the sides of the processor to make sure nothing gets left behind. You want it to be as smooth as possible). 

Then add the lemon juice, some of the water and salt and blend. Add the cooked edamame and blend until fine. 

Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans (I do it right in the can. No need to dirty a bowl or strainer)

Add the beans, rest of the water and olive olive and blend until you can't blend anymore. If you think you are done blending, you aren't. Keep going. and going. Unless you like it less smooth (which, for the edamame hummus, is actually kinda nice. I did it two ways, smooth and less smooth, and I couldn't decide which I liked best). - for a more hummus-y consistency though - blend until you think your machine is going to break from the bleeding. Then take a break and then turn it back on again. You want it to be as smooth as possible. 

Spoon into a dish and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. The dip is 1000x better when it's cold for some reason....

Drizzle good quality olive oil on top and serve with pita bread. I also LOVE this dip with sliced mini sweet peppers (you can find them in a pastil ziplock-like bag by the regular ones usually) I even tried it with carrots...and I was kinda into it. Which is saying something because I generally hate raw carrots.