Hummus

This weekend, we had some friends over and cooked supper. And I spent some time making homemade hummus. Now Perry mentioned at Unleash that I love hummus. And many may not know what it is. Heck, even if you do know and you’re buying your hummus from the store, you’re only half living. So, I made hummus, and documented it with photos to teach you all to expand your horizons. You’d even be proud of Matt, my accountability partner, who’s not a fan of such things (a meat and potatoes man if I ever met one)… he gave it an honest effort.

Here we go. As with all good recipes, I do this one without measuring and mostly from memory. It’s a lot about personal taste… you can add or edit as you see fit.

The basic recipe:
2 cans of garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas), drained
3-4 T. Tahini (sesame paste, like peanut butter made from sesame seeds)
Juice from one lemon (more to taste)
4-8 garlic cloves, peeled
1-2 T. olive oil
1 t. Paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Step 1. Drain and rinse beans.

Step 2. Stir Tahini… it separates.

Step 3. Put beans and Tahini into food processor.

Step 4. Juice one lemon, or use a bottle of juice. I prefer to use already prepared juice, but I didn’t have any, and I had the lemon…

Step 5. Add Paprika (pictured) and salt / pepper / olive oil.

Step 6. Peel and crush garlic. You just remove the dry skinned part with your fingers (or a knife, if needed). Then, use the flat portion of the knife and crush the garlic once to break it up. This helps it blend well and releases the juices.

Step 7. Combine all in food processor until smooth. It takes several minutes. At this point, use a spoon to check for taste. In mine, I added more Tahini, more paprika, and some more salt. In the end, I should have put more garlic, too.

Step 8. Serve with toasted pita. Mmmm.

Now, I’m sure there are 100s of variations and I’m welcome to hear them all. But this should get you started. Please enjoy.