Good Stuff: Mexican Hummus

ByJohn Brown

I have been giving a new way of eating a go for the last few months. It’s high-fat, medium-protein, low-carb (HFLC).

Zoinks!?

High freaking fat, you exclaim. Has he gone mad!

Well, possibly.

One thing I do know is that I’ve lightened the load my godlike thighs have to carry by about twenty pounds, which is a nice thing. Oh, and by the way, I’ve paired this with intermittent fasting.

Horrors!

Yes, it is Halloween. Or was a few days ago.

In a few more months, when I’ve given this method a good long test, I’ll explain exactly what this is all about. But I’ll tease you by saying that it seems the scientific community isn’t immune to bias and jumping the gun. Not even close. We’d like to think they are, all those men and women in their white lab coats, but they aren’t. In fact, there are a number of doctors and researchers right now demonstrating that the advice we’ve been getting about fat and carbohydrates since the late 1970s was wrong. Like 180 degrees wrong.

Let me point you to some presentations you can watch about this right now.

“The Two Big Lies of Type 2 Diabetes” by Jason Fung, MD

“Reversing Type 2 diabetes starts with ignoring the guidelines” by Sarah Hallberg, MD

“Therapeutic fasting” by Jason Fung, MD

Okay, so with that lead up, who’s up for a delicious, high-fat meal? Here’s one of my favorites.

I call it “Mexican Hummus.” I found it in Always Hungry? By David Ludwig, MD, PhD. He calls it “Cheesy Pinto Bean Dip.” Which isn’t a bad name, but isn’t inspiring. You might call it modern refried beans, but that sounds like something out of a can or glopped onto the side of your dish. But Mexican Hummus, that has some class. A little zip.

Whatever you call it, it tastes great.

Use as a dip for red, orange, or yellow bell peppers cut into strips. Or eat it as a side. I like it with baked chicken thighs. It’s also good with fajita veggies—sautéed peppers and onions cooked with lots of butter, salt, and a bit a chili powder—and some slices of avocado.

MEXICAN HUMMUS

  1. Mix the following in food processor for 30 seconds or until smooth
    1. 1 C cooked pinto beans, drained and rinsed
    2. 4 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
    3. ¼ C water
    4. ½ tsp chili powder
    5. ¼ to ½ tsp salt
  2. Mix in ¾ C shredded cheddar cheese (you want cheddar cause it melts well)
  3. Heat in microwave or on stove until cheese just melts. Stir.

HOMEMADE CHILI POWDER

I don’t like the chili powder you get in the stores—it’s too strong, overwhelms everything I put it into, and gives me heartburn. So I found a recipe that’s awesome and make my own.

Mix the following together. Choose the amounts in the ranges shown based on your tastes.

  • 2 tablespoon paprika
  • ¾  to 1½ teaspoon onion powder
  • 1½ to 2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • ½  to 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1½ t garlic powder (optional)
  • ½ to 1½ teaspoon cayenne (optional, I put in barely a pinch; I do NOT like it spicy)

HERB-ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS

This has got to be the easiest recipe on the planet for chicken.

  • 6 to 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons dried herb blend (Italian herb mix, poultry mix, lemon chicken mix, or chili powder above)
  • ½ to ¾ teaspoons of salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions.

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Grease a 9×9 inch baking dish with butter or some extra-virgin olive oil
  3. Put chicken skin side up in baking dish
  4. Brush with the olive oil
  5. Sprinkle on the herb blend, salt, and pepper
  6. Bake for 45 minutes.
  7. If you want, you can baste a couple of time through the cooking by spooning the juices in the baking dish over the thighs.

Bon appetite.

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8 Comments

  1. You should check out the instant pot pressure cooker.

    Cooks dry pinto beans in less then an hour. (So much better than canned) plus there are so many great recipes.

    It’s pretty easy 1 pot cooking but I think tastes better then crock pot.

  2. I have the Cuisinart version. Have done beans before. But I do have to say canned are easy and cheap.

  3. LCHF coupled with Intermittent Fasting has allowed me to drop 80 pounds in 8 months, effortlessly. And my blood work is stellar, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose, A1C, fasting insulin, all of them are improved and well into “normal” or even “optimal” range now.

    I went on a two week vacation to Hawaii with my family and actually dropped 5 pounds despite occasionally breaking the LCHF because I kept faithful the intermittent fasting regimen throughout.

    Some will “high fat” is a death sentence but if you look at the science that got us to that declaration, you find that it’s full of bad studies and assumptions that later didn’t pan out in real clinical studies. But yet it’s the conventional wisdom and people’s reputations and careers have been ruined by trying to confront it with new facts. Hmmm, there’s a story in there….

  5. This is interesting! I need to drop some weight (Type 2, A1C is good at 6.6, but some weight loss would be good.)

    I seem to need more specifics on a diet plan. Like a typical week of menus. I’m trying to limit carbs (because of the Type 2), and need to walk more. So a guideline of daily menus is useful to me.

    The results from ‘igglesPhan’ are impressive. I’d like that!

  6. Thanks for the update, John.
    i’ve run across similar articles in the last year re myths about fats and intermittent fasting – but not tested them as yet. I’ll be very interested to follow your updates.

    nice to see the other comments from folks. also. for the record, we also use the instant pot pressure cooker. I made a killer lentil soup. Good stuff.

    again, regards and looking forward to next updates.

    PS – thanks for the info re Extant … been on my “need to watch” list for some time, just not gotten around to it yet.

  7. What’s your recipe for lentil soup? I tried to make one in the pressure cooker and it was awful–hard lentils. Terrible.

  8. Sorry for the late reply… I had hoped to find that recipe since it did turn out so good -lentils were not hard at all. I have not made it since b/c nobody else in my family will eat lentils -go figure! And it made a LOT of soup.

    I found the recipe on some cooking website early in my playing with the pressure cooker (got it 1+ year ago on black friday sale) ,,, just didn’t save site and cannot remember what device i used to find it!

    I guess i am not prepared to ever make it [exactly] again! Yikes. If I ever recreate it, i’ll let you and interested parties know.

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