I am writing this on my new Macbook Air on the train! I don’t have connectivity, but it’s awesome to at least be able to carry my laptop without feeling like I’ve got boulders in my backpack.
From Scratch Friday is here, and today I bring you easily one of the most versatile foods ever: hummus!
There are so many freaking hummus recipes on the internet, it’s both awesome and overwhelming. With tahini or without? With olive oil or without? Cumin or no cumin? Is it still hummus if you load it up with roasted red pepper or cilantro or avocado? These are the important questions of the day.
But today I bring you fairly garden variety hummus, with a little bit of kick at the end.
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas (or one can)
- 1/2 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp tahini
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 lemon (or half a juicy lemon)
- 1 tsp salt
- Olive oil or cooking water
Method:
Put garlic in food processor and process until minced. Add all ingredients and process until chunky. WIth the food processor on, add olive oil or cooking water until desired consistency is reached. Taste and adjust seasonings (lemon, salt, cumin) as necessary. Serve topped with olive oil and paprika, alongside pita triangles.
Given that it was 6 am when I was frantically making this while trying to get ready for work and eat breakfast (what was that about mindful eating?) so my pictures are sub par because it is DARK when I wake up and pretty much until I make it to the train. Awesome.
But anyway, here are step by step photos, just in case the directions aren’t clear.
Add garlic to food processor. Freak out that food processor isn’t working.
Realize that food processor is not plugged in. Plug it in.
Process garlic.
Add chickpeas, lemon, tahini, cumin and salt. That lemon looks like it’ll be really juicy, but it wasn’t.
While food processor is running, add cooking water or oil. No photo of this because I don’t have 3 hands. That’d be cool though.
A note about why some people use olive oil and some people use cooking water – I use both interchangeably. I’ve noticed that the cooking water results in a lighter, fluffier texture while the olive oil is a bit creamier. I have a whole jar of homemade hummus with olive oil in the fridge, so I went with water this time – always good to have a low-fat option!
And ta-da, you’ve got hummus!
“But Liz, you say, it’s orange. Did you add pumpkin? I know it’s fall, but isn’t that taking it a little far?”
It’s not pumpkin my dear friends (although here is an awesome pumpkin white bean dip that I’ve been gobbling with apple slices all week).
It’s smoked paprika!
Love this stuff, can’t get enough of it. It definitely added a kick to this batch. Spicy and delicious – the perfect accompaniment to celery and carrot sticks for an afternoon snack. Or toast, hummus, and avocado. YUM!
The possibilities for hummus are endless – there are even DESSERT hummus recipes that I am dying to try! I have some leftover chickpeas, so maybe that will happen. But I also have an entire tin full of crumbly brownies to figure out what to do with. Some sort of dessert hummus pie perhaps?! Who knows!
Happy Friday!
The Sixth Letter 