I love hummus. It’s one of those foods that’s good for you, fun to eat, yet sort of uppity. What I mean by that is that it’s typically a more grown up food, yet there are so many ways to fix it. You can go nice and simple, or dress it up with things like, sun-dried tomatoes. Or if you really want to culturally confuse your hummus, you could add cilantro and jalapeno pepper to it. YUM! Me? I like to dress it down and get back to the basics. Just plain old hummus. Over the years, I’ve tweaked my recipe until I have it just where I like it. Fabulous! (Everyone’s palate for hummus is different. So if you feel like you need to add a bit more or less of any specific ingredient, go ahead. All’s fair in love and hummus!)
You will need…
one can of chickpeas, drained
1/4 cup good tahini paste
2-3 teaspoons of minced garlic (the cheaty kind in the jar from the produce section)
the juice from half a lemon
sea salt to taste (anywhere from 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon)
1/2 cup water (divided)
two tablespoons olive oil
In your food processor, dump the drained chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, about half the water and salt. Pulse a few times to start incorporating everything. Scrape the sides down, add more water if you desire, (maybe even a pinch more salt) and then turn the processor on and let it go for at least 30 seconds. We don’t want chunks in our hummus. Chunks in hummus are not good. They won’t make the hummus any more uppity than it already is. In fact, chunks in the hummus will take it to a side of town that we don’t want to go to. So mix it up!! Okay 🙂 Now, if your processor is like mine, there’s that neat little thing at the top that I can remove while it’s still running so I can drizzle in the olive oil while it’s going. If it doesn’t, that’s okay too. Just remove the lid, dump in the olive oil, and continue to process until you’ve got yourself the smoothest, creamiest, most awesome hummus in your county. Unless, you live in my county. Then you’ll have to call me and we can talk about it. Will it be the battle of the church picnic hummuses? Oh, one can only dream!!! Serve your hummus with whatever you like. Personally, I like to thinly slice an english cucumber and dip it like a chip. Or carrot sticks. Or pita. Whatever your hummus-y lil’ heart desires.
**hummus related trivia**
What character, on what popular t.v. sitcom said, “Hummus…I got the hummus!”? 🙂
Divahen 