Go with the D’oh

LA SALLE — May 13 is International Hummus Day, an annual celebration that encourages fans of the creamy, chickpea-based dip to try new flavours or utilize the versatile offering in a non-traditional manner — perhaps on a pizza as a substitute for tomato sauce, or paired with pasta or egg salad.

The food holiday was reportedly created in 2012 by two friends who were miffed to learn there was a 24-hour period on the calendar reserved for Nutella — World Nutella Day falls on Feb. 5 — but not for their preferred spread. (It certainly took long enough; according to a March 2023 article in New Lines Magazine, the earliest-known reference to hummus, which is Arabic for chickpeas, occurred in the 13th century, when a cookbook written by an Arab historian made mention of the Middle Eastern staple.)

That takes us to Janine Johnson, the founder of Cookie D’oH Hummus, a La Salle-based enterprise that specializes in dessert-style hummus, a burgeoning food trend that enjoyed global sales of US$110 million in 2025 and has been described as “when dessert dreams collide with health-conscious living.” The mother of two laughs, admitting she never knew International Hummus Day was a thing — an oversight she vows to rectify straight away.

“Maybe in the back of my mind I was aware, because seriously, there seems to be a day for pretty much every food out there,” Johnson says, cradling a mug of London Fog tea. “Now that I know for sure, I promise to recognize it in some manner, going forward.”

Johnson wasn’t hopping on any gourmand bandwagons when she launched her biz a little over a year ago. Truth be told, she began making dessert hummus for herself in 2017 as part of a life-changing fitness regimen.

“This all developed from when I was struggling with managing my weight after the birth of our second child,” she says, choosing the word obese to describe the state she was in. “I went to my doctor and she was like, ‘You’re right, you’re seriously overweight, we have to figure something out.’”

Joining a gym helped tremendously. Except at night, when she was on the couch flipping channels, Johnson continued to crave treats such as Oreos and chocolate bars, which had long been her Achilles’ heel. Included in a menu plan administered by her physician was a recipe for “cookie dough” hummus prepared with sugar-free syrup, cashews and non-dairy chocolate chips instead of tahini, lemon juice and garlic, to render it sweet versus savoury. She had doubts the concoction would do the trick, but after whipping up a batch, it instantly became her go-to snack, coupled with apple slices.

How scrumptious was it? Johnson ultimately had to hide her sweet hummus at the back of the fridge, to prevent her husband and sons from nabbing it first to slather on their toast and pancakes. “This is Mom’s!” she’d scribble on the containers.

In December 2024, Thrive Active, the gym she belongs to, hosted a holiday potluck meal for members and staff. Attendees were encouraged to each contribute a dish. Johnson, who by then had lost close to 100 pounds, brought along her cookie dough hummus, with berries and grapes for dipping purposes.

“There were probably 50 different items and I swear, the hummus was the only thing people were literally scooping out of the bowl with their fingers, till it was all gone,” she says, smiling from ear to ear. “Everybody was asking if I’d made it — none of them had heard of dessert hummus before — and that was my ‘a-ha’ moment. I went home thinking, ‘hmm, I might just have something here.’”

So what if her only formal experience with food was a part-time job at Dairy Queen when she was attending high school? (Here she demonstrates how she used to expertly turn Blizzards upside down before serving them to customers.) Johnson spent January and February of 2025 fine-tuning recipes, attaining her food-handler’s licence, tracking down a commercial kitchen near her place and finally, registering the name Cookie D’oH Hummus.

By the time she was accepted as a vendor at at her inaugural pop-up market that spring, she had settled on four gluten-friendly, vegan flavours: brownie-batter, lemon-drop, cinnamon-swirl and chocolate-chip cookie dough, her original. Earlier on, she’d developed a fifth, red-velvet cookie dough, but she shelved it after it turned her sons’ tongues a bright shade of crimson.

The market proved to be a success and Johnson, an accounting administrator for a large automotive group in her “real life,” hasn’t looked back much, since. She has become a familiar face at venues such as the St. Norbert Farmer’s Market and Pineridge Hollow in Birds Hill. This weekend, she will be putting breakfast in bed on hold to set up at Scattered Seeds Craft Market’s Mother’s Day sale, being held Saturday and Sunday at Red River Exhibition Park.

“I definitely have regulars who keep tabs of where I’m going to be, so they can drop by and get their fix of 10 or 12 containers,” says Johnson, noting she will have a special, limited-edition flavour on hand at Scattered Seeds — a lemon-drop hummus boasting white-chocolate chips that tends to sell out whenever it’s available.

Johnson allows that it hasn’t all been cookies and cream. Many has been the time a doubter has paraded past her booth, announcing they have no intention of trying even a smidgen on a graham cracker, as “there’s no way this is hummus.” Her response: it’s true hers may not be what they’re used to, but since chickpeas constitute 90 per cent of the ingredients, it’s definitely hummus, albeit a sweet version.

“I’m one of those people who’s always been ready and willing to give anything a shot, so I actually get a tiny bit offended when someone says sorry, they’re not interested. I can feel the mom boiling up inside me when I tell them, ‘C’mon, the least you can do is try it.’ Then, after they do, more times than not, they end up taking some home.”

For the time being, Johnson, who personally delivers orders on Sundays to customers living within a 50-kilometre radius of her commercial kitchen in La Salle, is content with Cookie D’oH Hummus being a “side hustle.” That being said, last week she sat down with a group of potential investors who have expressed interest in helping her take her venture to the next level.

“I have UPC labels on all my packaging, nowadays, so I am ready if retail opportunities present themselves. But there are still a lot of decisions to be made before that happens,” she says, adding she recently introduced salted-caramel hummus made with dates to her ever-growing arsenal. “Do I want to quit my full-time job? I’m not sure, because I absolutely love where I work. Plus, I’d have to hire staff because currently it’s me, myself and I.

“But (retail) is my potential goal, as it should be for anybody who has a product they truly believe in. For me, it isn’t just hummus. It’s part of my weight-loss journey, which is why I proudly share my story, every chance I get. It’s a positive thing in my life that just so happens to taste really, really good.”

For more information, go to cookiedohhummus.ca.

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