Hummus!

This is the recipe which your food processor was created for. And for those few non-foodies who don't own a food processor, your pita bread will suffer if you don't get one.. (or date someone who does. Compromise.)

Becoming a vegetarian, this was one of those staples I had to learn to create for myself. After digging through large stacks of veggie cookbooks with expensive and obscure ingredients in the recipe, I came across hummus.

Chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, cumin, salt, pepper, tahini... Tahini?! What the.. is tahini? After a lil googling and a trip to the health food store, I soon discovered tahini is a seasame paste which comes in a tiny lil bottle for $5. hmm.. Quite frankly I had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of the jar of this beige seed butter besides let it sit in the frig for the next 9 months. Eh, how important could it be really? So ever since then, my recipe has never included tahini. It gives a lil more flavor to traditional hummus, but in my book it just tastes kinda chalky. Why bother with it.

After several tweaks along the way.. less garlic.. lil more lemon and cumin. This is my tried and true hummus recipe. Use it at your next party or for your weekday lunches.



Hummus! (yes it deserves an exclamation mark.)

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
4 tbls lemon juice
3 tbls olive oil
1 1/2 tsp cumin
pinch of both salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions:

Drain all but just a lil of the liquid from the can of chickpeas. Pour the can of beans and liquid into a food processor. Now process until creamy. The lil bit of liquid will help the beans become mashed smoothly. Remove processor lid and add the chopped garlic and lemon juice. Process. If your food processor has an oil drip opening, add the olive oil one tablespoon at a time into the food process while it is on. Allow it to drip slowly into the mixture. (If you do not have this lil opening in the lid, then remove the lid, add one tbls of oil olive, close lid, and process. Repeat for the remaining 2 tbls.) After olive oil is incorporated, add cumin, salt and pepper. Process one last time to mix.

Now enjoy with fresh veggies, feta, and pita bread. Or add to sandwiches. Throw in some greek olives and drizzle olive oil over the top and serve with pita chips. Possibilities are endless.