Hummus Cups with Cucumber and Tomato

Aren't they pretty?

This is a quick and easy appetizer that is just delicious.  All of the parts are excellent: pizza dough, hummus, and fresh vegetables.  So Joanne and Adam Gallagher (whoever they are) are geniuses for thinking to put them all together.  Basically you take pizza dough and bake it in mini muffin cups, and then fill the cups with hummus and chopped cucumber and tomato.  I made them when Anne came over for dinner and they were all eaten before dinner was done!

I will confess to using store-bought pizza dough and hummus, but I bet this would be even more amazing if you made your own.... which I just may have to do.  The recipe called for Pillsbury pizza dough but I just used a bag.

Don't forget to poke holes in the dough cups before you bake them; if you forget they won't stay in cup form and you'll end up with dough pillows!  I only found this out when I neglected to poke one of them :)

Recipe:

hummus cups with cucumber and tomato
from Inspired Taste
yield approximately 24 cups

Ingredients:

1 can Pillsbury Classic Pizza Crust (or a bag of store-bought dough... or your own recipe!)
1/2 cup hummus
1/2 cup diced cucumber
5 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1) Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly spray 24 mini muffin cups with cooking spray.

2) Roll pizza dough out into a 14x12" rectangle (approximately).  Then use a 2 1/2" cookie cutter to cut out 24 circles of dough.  Press each circle of dough into the muffin cups.  Use a fork to pierce the bottom of each pizza cup, 3-4 pricks per cup.

3) Bake pizza cups 8-10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown.  Transfer cups to a cooling rack to col completely.

4) Once cooled, fill each pizza cup with a heaping teaspoon of hummus, and then top with a few pieces of cucumber and a quarter of tomato.  Finish with a sprinkling of salt.