Cocoa hummus (salted)

Hello! Today we bring you one more recipe of @alquimista_vegana with our cocoa mass.

Today's recipe is a perfect salty spread to surprise guests or simply to enjoy a very healthy snack.

We gave it the name "Cacumus" (hummus with cocoa) and you'll love it if:

• You love cocoa and dark chocolate;
• You are looking for original, healthy, sustainable alternatives without ingredients of animal origin;
• You like the idea of making the most of resources and ingredients.

The ingredients needed to make it (one serving of starter for 2) are:

150 gr of beluga lentils or black beans (weight of dried legumes)

1000 ml filtered water

A tablespoon of tahini (if it is black sesame will be even better and more nutritious)

Two tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/2 date Medjoul

1 clove black garlic

A tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

25gr cocoa mass (Gguni)

Salt (to taste)

A teaspoon of sesame seeds and a few mint leaves to decorate.

Preparation process:

For this recipe you can use beluga lentils or black beans, whichever you prefer or is easier to obtain. Both legumes look good in this recipe because they give a dark tone to the spread but also because they are full of antioxidants and minerals further enhancing the nutrients naturally present in cocoa.

Beluga lentils are the most nutritious of lentils and are also very convenient because they do not need pre-soaking to be able to cook them in just 20 minutes. On the other hand, black beans have a flavor that marries perfectly with cocoa.

Another important thing is that we will really only need half the amount of legumes to make today's recipe, but as cooking legumes presupposes an energy expenditure and anyway we will need the other half for another recipe, so we make a more sustainable management of resources and time.

Wash the legumes and cook them until soft. For lentils you will need just 25 minutes and for beans 45 min or even an hour (and you have to let them soak overnight). When they are tender enough to eat them we take them out of the water but attention, we do not want to throw that water.

The cooking water of legumes is called "aqua faba" and is a precious ingredient for the following recipe. We leave that water on medium heat until it is reduced to about 350 ml or so, let it cool and store it in the freezer or refrigerator depending on whether it will take more or less than two days to use it in the next recipe.

Divide the cooked legumes into two equal portions and keep one of them in the fridge or freezer.

The rest could not be easier: In a water bath melt the cocoa mass. Pour all the other ingredients into the blender glass and add the melted cocoa. Crush everything until it is a creamy paste. We can add a little water if necessary. We test and adjust the salt and acidity to our liking by putting more balsamic vinegar and / or salt if necessary.

We put it in a bowl with some sesame seeds and mint leaves to decorate and serve with a good toast.