By Del Sroufe, The China Study Family Cookbook

Hummus is a great way to get beans into the mouths of kids who might not otherwise be fans of the uber-healthy legume. My mom used to take us to a small tavern in downtown Columbus where the owner was Greek and made amazing food. My brother and I would sit at the bar and snack on his version of the yummy spread.

Ingredients:

•  4 cups cooked or canned chickpeas, warmed (see Tip) 
•  1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted and ground in a food processor 
•  6 garlic cloves, peeled 
•  3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 
•  3 tablespoons nutritional yeast 
•  2 teaspoons dried basil or 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
•  1 teaspoon dried oregano 
•  1 teaspoon sea salt 
•  2 large tomatoes, sliced 
•  2 cups mixed greens 
•  8 whole-grain pitas, cut in half and split

Instructions:

1. Combine the chickpeas, pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, basil, oregano and sea salt in a food processor and puree until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the bowl as needed to get everything incorporated. 
2.  To make the sandwiches, put a tomato slice and some mixed greens in each pita half and spoon some of the hummus in with it. 

*Recipe Tip:
Warmed chickpeas will give you a creamier hummus than cold chickpeas. If you are cooking your beans from scratch, make sure they are very tender before making them into hummus, and be patient when pureeing. Otherwise, the final texture will be gritty.