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Food on Fridays with Ann

I’ve been making hummus for a while, using the same basic recipe.

Every once in a while I mess around with it. Change it up.

I’ve roasted a sweet red pepper and blended that in; another time I did the same with an orange pepper. One time I whirred olives into a batch. But most of the time, our family likes it plain.

For the basic recipe, we use garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, cumin, garlic, and some salt. I once substituted almond butter for the tahini, which was tasty, but we agreed that tahini tasted better. We usually use canned garbanzo beans, but I’ve cooked up dried garbanzo beans to use, and it changes the flavor. Improves it, if you ask me.

Well, the other day I decided to use sesame seeds instead of tahini (tahini is sesame seed paste).

Best batch yet.

Hummus

Ingredients

• 2 15-oz cans chickpeas, saving the liquid to add as needed (or cook and cool a bag of dried chickpeas, though this will make more hummus than you’ll get with the 2 cans…and you’ll have to add a little cooking liquid to moisten)
• 1/4 C tahini or raw sesame seeds (I have only recently acquired sesame seeds and love the result)
• 1 T olive oil
• 1/4 C lemon juice (I only use fresh squeezed)
• 1 peeled garlic clove, minced to ensure thorough blending
• 1 t cumin
• salt
• creative additions (such as roasted red pepper)

Directions:

Place everything but salt in the blender and whirr it all together, adding liquid from the garbanzo beans as needed to achieve desired consistency—you’re looking for the hummus to blend smooth and creamy. If you can control the speed of your blender, start low and then ease it up. Afterward, season to taste with salt.

After reading this detailed and amusing description of hummus-preparation, I plan to add fresh parsley.

We smoosh the hummus into wide-mouthed jars to store in the fridge, then eat it as a dip for vegetables, chips, melba toast, or Wheat Thins; or, we use the hummus as a spread for sandwiches and wraps. It’s even nice on salads to replace or minimize need for dressing.

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Photo by Ann Kroeker. “Pin” these images in a way that links back to this particular page, giving proper credit.

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