If you have a thing for hummus but don’t mind a little variety from time to time, you’ll want to give this sweet potato-based hummus a try.

All varieties of sweet potatoes are abundant in vitamin C, carotenoids, and vitamin B-6 (helpful for keeping homocysteine at a healthy level), and even minerals like iron manganese, and potassium.

Orange-flesh sweet potatoes are more moist and provide a richer carotenoid profile than yellow-flesh varieties. But don’t hesitate to give the following recipe a try with purple-skin, yellow-flesh sweet potatoes, which are popular in many Asian and African countries. Yellow flesh sweet potatoes have a hardier texture than orange sweet potatoes, yielding a closer mouthfeel to traditional chickpea-based hummus.

Many thanks to Breanna for sharing this recipe and the following photos with us.

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes
Juice of 1 lemon or lime
1/4 cup tahini
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped or minced
Sea salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Bake sweet potatoes with their skins on at 425 degrees F for approximately 1 hour. They are ready when you can stick a fork through their flesh without much resistance. If they’re still firm after an hour, continue to bake and check every fifteen minutes.

2. Let sweet potatoes cool, which allows their skins to easily slide off. Give the cooked sweet potato flesh a quick mash, then transfer to a food processor.

3. Add chopped or minced garlic plus the juice of one lemon or lime.

4. Add tahini.

5. Blend thoroughly, then add sea salt and pepper to taste. If you like a little heat, add a pinch or two of cayenne powder.

6. Serve with your choice of vegetables, pita bread, or crackers. Sweet potato hummus also makes for a nice salad topper or a side dish to baked tilapia.

Enjoy this lovely, carotenoid-rich spin on traditional hummus.

Article originally posted on DrBenKim.com republished with permission.