Gather your mis en place; get together all of the equipment needed for the recipe and gather your ingredients.

Peel the garlic and remove the root end. Roughly chop and put into a bowl. Roughly chop the parsley and add to the same bowl.

Using a rasp, finely grate the parmesan cheese (if using), and put into the bowl with the parsley and garlic.

Open the cannelini beans, drain with a strainer and rinse in the sink. Put into the bowl with the other ingredients.

Cut your lemon in half, and squeeze out the juice. Measure out 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and strain out any seeds. Measure your olive oil, and gather your salt and pepper.

Cut the sun-dried tomatoes into long thin strips, set aside for now in a separate bowl.

In the bowl of the food processor, combine drained cannellini beans with garlic, parsley, parmesan cheese, black pepper, lemon juice, oil, and a pinch of salt.

Turn on the food processor and slowly add oil until the bean mixture forms a smooth puree. Add salt, taste for seasoning and adjust with more salt if needed. Cover the hummus and refrigerate while you prepare the cucumber cups.

Cut the end off of the cucumber, and cut the cucumber into 3 cm long pieces, making sure that they are straight. Using a melon baller or a teaspoon, scoop out the middle of the cucumber to make a cup (make sure that you leave the bottom intact).

Fill a pastry bag with hummus (or substitute a plastic sandwich bag with the end cut off if you do not have one). Fill each cucumber cup with hummus so that it is slightly domed above the top of the cucumber cup.

Garnish each cucumber cup with a strip sun-dried tomato.