IMAG1362Hummos (also: Hummus (Arabic: حُمُّص‎)) is a dip or spread made with chickpeas. It is delicious.

Chickpeas are called Garbanzo beans in the US – I’ve tried to use both terms here, but being bilingual never hurt anybody!

RM likes hummos so much that I realised I needed to make it from scratch so he doesn’t break my food budget with how much he loves it! This is especially good with fresh corn tortilla chips.

Really, really, really good.

It’s naturally gluten and dairy free too, which makes this a fabulous snack if you have allergies. I know paleo people like to avoid legumes, but honestly, i think the fibre and protein of chickpeas make them such a great food, they are worth considering!

If you have any recipes using other legumes, like fava beans, blackeyed peas, lentils or even the brown beans that are the ubiquitous refried bean staple in the southwest, I’d love to hear about them. Beans are easy to source in New Mexico and cheap! I’m a big fan of cheap when you have a mortgage to pay off!

This is great with tortilla chips, as i say, but bread is also amazing, as is celery, cucumber, carrots, broccoli. It makes a huge bowl and it keeps for at least a few days. Honestly, there is really no chance of this having time to run past its eat by time, because there is never any left!

 

 

 

 

What you will need

3 cups of chickpeas (dried and uncooked)
OR
5 cups cooked/canned chickpeas.
1/2 cup minced garlic
1/2 cup olive oil (i don’t always use evoo in the main recipe batch)
1/3 cup lemon (or lime juice)
a generous pinch of kosher salt & cracked pepper
3 tablespoons of tahini

How To

Soak the chickpeas in a bowl with enough water to cover them overnight. We usually place a tea towel over the top and sit it on the kitchen counter over night. They will increase significantly in size. You can replace the water if it gets particularly cloudy but they are fine left to their own devices if not.

Rinse the chickpeas with fresh water and strain – some of the loose skins will come off as you do this. This is good.

Place in a saucepan that is big enough so the chickpeas only take up half of it. Cover with water to 2/3 up the side of the saucepan, covering the chickpeas. Bring to boil and let boil for 10-15 minutes, then turn stove down to just on, so that they can simmer their little hearts away. Simmer for the next 2 hours. It will take that long for them to get soft.

I highly recommend taking the time and cooking the dried chickpeas  (they are usually about $1.30 US a bag, and this recipe uses about 1 bag of the dried ones). Not only is it significantly cheaper, it really isn’t much extra work. If you often decide you desperately need hummus right now and haven’t soaked any chickpeas over night, it is really easy to cook much larger batches up of the chickpeas to freeze (or soak) and then either cook or defrost depending on the stage you froze them.

Strain the cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans). I use a barmix (hand held blender) because it makes the cleanup almost non existent – but you could use a food processor if that’s easy for you. I start by blending the beans down till they are almost pureed – i don’t worry too much about them being a bit chunky, but this is a subjective preference. I usually put all the extra ingredients in slowly a little at a time. This is one recipe you must taste! You may want to adjust any or all of the additives based on your own taste. One note: We have trouble finding tahini in the wilds of new mexico – it is best with it, but it still tastes amazing without.

We serve this with paprika sprinkled on top and wonderful Extra Virgin Olive Oil! We’ve also used garam masala in place of the paprika when we haven’t had any in the spice cabinet.

Variations: add 1/2 cooked and pureed pumpkin. Add some nutmeg and cinnamon for some seasonality

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Anna Blanch_Gill Gamble_blogAnna Blanch Rabe is an Australian-born writer and photographer.  Recently married, she and her husband love to cook together using fresh ingredients. More recipes can be found at Food: Nourish. In 2014, she will embark on an epic adventure traveling Overland From Australia to London (via Russia and Japan) by train and ferry. You can follow this adventure on Not A Pedestrian Life, or Facebook. More of her photography can be viewed here. For more Theology:Naked take a look at Quotidian Home or her previous website, Goannatree.

Anna Blanch Rabe
anna@annablanchrabe.com
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