Super Bowl Par-tay (featuring Sriracha Butternut Hummus)

OK, so I’m a little behind on my weekend posting… just think of this as a special gift after you thought it was all over :-).

And we did have a Super Bowl party this year! I can’t recall the last time I even watched the Super Bowl. I know there was one when I was in college and Denver was playing. One of my friends was from Denver so we rallied behind her and all wore orange to watch the game. I’d think that I’ve probably watched another one in the past 22 years, but who knows.

This year was particularly fun. Friends and LOTS of great food. I originally thought about rooting for the 49ers since I live in California, but when I heard about Terrell Suggs’ PETA ad, that was enough to change my mind. My devotion to the little animals overrules all else :-). And the Ravens played a great game and won, so it was all the better.

The food was amazing ….

We had Trader Joe’s version of chickenless wings doused with hot sauce to magically turn them into buffalo wings, with vegan ranch dipping sauce… and reuben rolls, based on Kristina’s recipe, with BBQ thousand island dipping sauce…. and sriracha butternut hummus with carrots and celery… and we also had amazing vegan pizza that we were too full to eat, so had it as a midnight snack.

The sriracha butternut hummus was one of my contributions (along with the reuben rolls), and it was one of those repurposed recipes that I talked about here in the Transition to Vegan #1 post.

I had butternut squash that had already been baked, and this was the leftovers from that. I had previously sliced it and baked it with a drizzle of olive oil, garlic, smoked paprika and cayenne, so it had a little kick already.

I used the remainder of that (about 2 cups I think) and blended it with cooked chickpeas (about 2 cups), the juice of 2 lemons, about 1/2 cup cashews, salt to taste, and a few generous squirts of sriracha.  Add it all to the food processor, along with enough water to get the right consistency, and let it blend away. I ended up doing it in 2 batches to get it smooth enough.  It would also be great with tahini, but one of our friends is allergic to sesame seeds, so I used cashews instead to get that creaminess.

And then of course, a couple more squirts of sriracha for decoration, and we were good to go.  Great stuff – one can never have too much heat, I say 🙂

Any other variations on plain hummus that I should know about?

As a side note – registrations are currently being taken for the March Vegan Wellness Retreat in beautiful Santa Cruz, CA. It’s going to be a fantastic and full 5 days ~ come join us!