Hummus

I love hummus and I finally made it (successfully) starting with dried chickpeas or garbanzo beans instead of canned chickpeas. I tried in this post, but I failed because I failed to cook the chickpeas before blending them with the other ingredients.

The hummus turned out great and I must say that starting with dried chickpeas really does make a difference. The flavor truly is that much better when you start with dried chickpeas. Using dried chickpeas does require advance planning and at least 24 hours and because of this I will keep a can of chickpeas on hand at all times for those instances when I did not plan in advance or get a huge hummus craving that cannot wait.

As with any dried bean, I sifted through them to remove any stones or bad beans. Then, I placed them in a large saucepan with cold water and ½ tsp. salt. The chickpeas soak overnight and are ready the next day.

Be sure you drain the water off the chickpeas and then add new water to rinse off any starchy fiber that would cause gas. Simmer the chickpeas for an hour or an hour and a half.

Drain the liquid saving 1 Tbsp liquid.

(You can tell that I threw some black beans in. I had some left over from Mexican food and decided to use them in this. It was a great variation!)

The recipe calls for Tahini. It is sesamee paste. You can find it near the peanut butter or in the international aisle. It stores for some time in a room-temperature location and does separate.

Place chickpeas, 1 Tbsp liquid, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 Tbsp tahini, 1 large garlic clove, ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper in a food processor. Stream in olive oil into the food processor as the mixture blends. (it will be approximately ¼ c. olive oil.)

Taste and add any additional seasoning as needed.

Place in a serving bowl and cover with paprika. Serve with crackers, pita, raw vegetables, as a sandwich spread, or in a cold pasta or quinoa salad.

I made two; one with black beans and one plain as I used it in a dip.

Homemade Hummus

I have a confession to make. I am addicted to hummus. I cannot get enough of it and in the past 3-4 years I have perfected my recipe.

Think of hummus as a dip. You take chickpeas or garbanzo beans and add other things to them until you have a creamy mixture that is perfect as a dip or sauce. The real benefit is that hummus is quite good for you.

It is good for you, but I make and eat at least a batch of hummus a week which may be in excess. Lucky for me, Bryan does not love it and certainly does not want to eat it weekly like I do, so I get the pleasure of eating all of it on my own!

For me, vegetables are best with hummus. I can eat all of the daily recommended servings of vegetables as long as there is hummus as a dip! Without hummus I rarely get all of the vegetables needed in a day into my diet.

I must warn you that my hummus is American-ized and is not entirely authentic. I am sure that I do not use enough olive oil and occasionally add things like dry ranch mix to change the hummus up a bit. I encourage you to experiment and make it as you like!

Hummus

1 can garbanzo beans or chickpeas, drained, reserving 2 Tbsp of the liquid

1 Tbsp Tahini (this is sesame seed paste) you might find it by the olive oil or peanut butter

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp. liquid from the garbanzo beans

 Add the above ingredients and combine in a food processor. Drizzle in approx. 4 Tbsp. olive oil as the hummus is processing in the food processor. Process for 3-4 minutes or until smooth.

The Tahini will store in your cupboard for approximately a year. It separates, but just stir it all together and use it until it is gone. You can see it in the container - there is liquid on the top and solid on the bottom:

When you combine it, it looks like this:

 It comes in a larger container (probably 16 oz but when you only use 1 Tbsp at a time you may want to share it with your friends/family/neighbors).

To make this more authentic add more olive oil and more tahini – at least double of both.

I generally eat hummus with carrots and broccoli, but I also eat it combined with tuna or just on pita bread or crackers.