Hummus is a healthy food, right? Sure it is. All those health crazy nuts go gaga for the stuff! And yet, from a volumetrics point of view, it’s not all that great. Let’s take a look at the nutrition information for Wegmans Food You Feel Good About hummus:

• 70 calories per 2 Tbsp serving
• 30g per 2 Tbsp serving
• 35 calories from fat

That’s 2.3 calories per gram, and exactly half of those calories are from fat! No, it’s not horrible, but I decided that I wanted to see if I could do better. Here’s the result of my experimentation:

• 4 cans (15.5 oz each) garbanzo beans, drained
• 3/4 cup Hidden Valley lite ranch salad dressing
• 1 Tbsp Sriracha hot sauce (increase to 2 Tbsp for more kick)
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Put all those ingredients together in a food processor and blend until smooth. No cooking, no chopping; nice and easy. It makes a lot, so it will last a while. I calculate that’s about 2400 grams of food, and right around 2000 calories. We’re looking at a calorie density of 0.8 calories per gram, and only about 400 of those calories, less than a quarter, are from fat.

So my concoction has right around 1/3 the calories of the Wegmans hummus, and 1/6 as much fat, and yet it tastes incredible. Seriously. I love this stuff. It’s great for dipping. I’ll bring a container of it to work and eat it with celery sticks or baby carrots.

My favorite is to take some of Wegmans whole wheat mini pitas and load them up with hummus. It’s a match made in heaven. Just look at this snack I had before bed tonight.

That whole plate has right around 200 calories on it (about 1.3 cal / g). It’s very filling and it tastes great!

– danBhentschel