The Wonderful World of Hummous

Every vegetarian worth their salt should know how to make a good basic hummous.  Actually, anybody and everybody should make and eat this delicious and nutritious dip/spread.  In fact, if everyone made and ate and shared hummous, the world would be a better place, imho!  Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) plus tahini (sesame paste) equals good plant-based protein.  So when folks are pestering you about where you get your protein from, just say, "hummous"!  Here is my recipe for my version of hummous:

1 1/2 cups organic chickpeas *
1/4 cup organic tahini *
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsps cumin
about 4 tbsp water
1/2 tsp salt (optional)

Throw everything in a blender and blend away until smooth.  Start with a little bit of water and add more to get the dip nice and smooth.  Eat with warm Naan bread or crackers or carrot sticks or spread on Romaine lettuce leaves or rolled up in leaf lettuce leaves or spread on toast ...
* 1 can of chickpeas is 1 1/2 cups, but I like to buy my chickpeas in dried form and cook them up in my slow cooker on high for about 5 hours then measure out 1 1/2 cups into freezer bags and freeze them.
* the amount of tahini I put in probably varies because I don't measure it!  I just dollop it in until it looks like the right amount, but I think 1/4 should do it.  Add more or less as you see fit.  That's the beauty of hummous - you can adjust to fit your tastebuds.

Speaking of adjusting ... here is a variation of hummous that I made recently.

Herb Hummous



To the basic recipe above, add about 1/2 cup of fresh, finely chopped herbs - for this one I used 1/4 cup parsley, 1/4 cup cilantro, 1 tbsp rosemary.

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"Sandwiches are beautiful, sandwiches are fine, I like sandwiches, I eat them all the time!"

Here's a vegan sandwich I made the other day.  Who needs a recipe for a sandwich?  Maybe no one, but I thought I'd include it here anyway because it was so yummy!

My sandwich had soy mayonnaise, but if I'd had any hummous made and available at that time, I would have used that.  I put slices of avacado and tomato and a couple of pieces of fresh, crunchy Romaine lettuce.  I sprinkled on some salt and pepper and put it all between a couple of pieces of toasted multi-grain bread (100% whole grain).  The sandwich is garnished with green olives (the same kind I used for that Olive, Sundried Tomato Hummous I posted on the blog earlier), and pickled beets (pickled by me last summer).  I actually stuck the beets inside the sandwich and it was deelicious!