Holy Homemade Hummus!

I have been meaning to make hummus for ages.  Store bought varieties are a staple of my lunches...with veggies, on pita, sometimes with pretzels or chips.  I adore every variety I've tried...plain, garlic loaded, spicy.  With olives or roasted red pepper.   The only thing that bothered me was a slightly artificial acidic flavor that nagged every brand I'd ever purchased.  I suspected the only solution was to make my own.


adapted from Cook Eat Live Vegetarian


yields about 1 1/2 cups

The Ingredients:
1 - 14 oz can garbanzo beans
3-4 Tbsp tahini
2-3 cloves of garlic
3-4 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
oil, cumin and paprika to serve

The Process:
In a large bowl, thoroughly rinse the garbanzo beans, gently squeezing and rubbing the beans together to loosen the skins.   Skin the loosened skins off the top of the water.

Transfer the beans to a medium sauce pan.  Add just enough water to cover.  Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat and simmer the beans for about 12-15 minutes, or until soft.

Drain the chickpeas, reserving about 1/4 cup of the liquid.   Rinse, again while gently rubbing together to loosen and remove any remaining skins.  This may sound incredible tedious, but the extra step yields an extra creamy end product!

Transfer the beans to a food processor.  Add the tahini, garlic, lemon juice and salt.  Process until smooth, adding reserved liquid 1 Tbsp at a time until the desired consistency is achieved. 

Spoon the hummus to a serving dish.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with cumin and paprika.  Serve with pita, veggies or chips.

The Review:
I made this to enjoy with lunch.  I almost sat down with the entire batch and a spoon...it's that good...

Homemade pitas to follow!

Lubiya

The recipe I used claims this is a Sephardi Isreali soup, though I can find little else about this black eyed pea stew. Stew or soup...it sounded incredibly hearty and very simple. And it's vegan and gluten free to boot!

Adapted from Main Courses 365 edited by Jenni Fleetwood

Serves 4

The Ingredients:
1 cup black-eyed peas
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium hot, or 2-3 mild fresh chilies, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
9 oz fresh or canned tomatoes, diced
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock (or chicken, or beef for a non-vegan soup)
1 oz fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon

The Process:
Put the beans in a pan, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, then cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heats, cover and leave stand for two hours.

Drain the beans, return to pan, cover with fresh cold water, then simmer for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the beans are tender. Drain and set aside.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onions garlic and chili and cook for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft. Stir in the cumin, turmeric, tomatoes, stock, half of the cilantro and the beans. Simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Stir in the lemon juice and remaining cilantro.

My Modifications:
Out of a force of habit, I had set up my beans to soak overnight, though the recipe did not call for that step. Once I noticed the error, I jumped right to the second step...simmering the beans for 30-45 minutes. In the end, they were tender but not mushy.

The chilies I used were 2 red fresno chili peppers. I also used a full 14 oz can of diced tomatoes. I did not find that the extra tomato overwhelmed any of the other flavors in the end.

The Review:
Hot soup. Cold Day. Always a winner!