[VeganMoFo!] Day 4: The Great Sprouted Sunflower Seed Hummus Escapade, episode 1 of ?

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Recently, a new raw foods cafe called Raw Can Roll opened up near me, in Devon, PA. My mom, who is not vegan but loves to eat vegetables, was here visiting a few weeks ago and we went to go check it out. We were very impressed with the food, particularly the hummus, which was made from sprouted sunflower seeds. Well, I had some sunflower seeds languishing in the back of my pantry, so I decided to give it a try in my own kitchen. I put the seeds in a jar of water to sprout.

My first challenge was that I did that whole process improperly. I was supposed to leave the seeds in the water for 24 hours, then drain out the water, rinse the seeds and put them back in the jar without adding more water. I made the mistake of putting fresh water back in the jar, which meant it took about 4 days for them to even begin to sprout a little. I think the seeds were also a little past their optimal consumption date, which gave them a sharpness in flavor that wasn't unpleasant but wasn't really quite what I was going for, and also probably contributed to their "failure to thrive".

But, I pressed forth. The final result was okay, for a first try, I suppose. I'll try it again sometime with fresh sunflower seeds and take care to sprout them properly next time! Or maybe I'll just go to Raw Can Roll and let them do it for me. :)

What I did:

1 cup "sprouted" (sort of) sunflower seeds
1/2 cup lemon juice (I started with 1/4 cup and ended up adding a whole lot more)
2 Tbsp tahini
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic (start with one)
a few spritzes of Bragg's liquid aminos (it needed salt, but it needed liquid more)
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp Hungarian paprika

I put all the ingredients except the spices in the food processor. I pressed the HIGH button a lot. I had to help it along a lot, and I ended up needing to add a lot more liquid than I'd anticipated.

I tried to get a photo of it, but it turns out it's not very photogenic. But I am eating it on crackers right now! It's not bad, just not quite what I was hoping.