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Just to pass some time, I’m going to give you the recipe I use for making hummus, the delicious Middle Eastern/Mediterranean spread of goodness.

As usual with my recipes, the amounts aren’t exact, and every batch I make is a little different. This is only a starting place for you to experiment from. Learn the flavors, learn the food, and relish the fact that each batch is unique and special.

Ingredients

• Two cans of Garbanzo Beans (AKA Chick Peas).
• A good scoop of Tahini (maybe 1/8th to 1/4 cup)
• A good splash of Lemon Juice (about the same amount as the Tahini)
• Two or three cloves of Fresh Garlic
• Dash of salt
• A little dollop of Olive Oil (less than the amount of Lemon Juice)
• Something(s) for flavor
  • Chipotle peppers?
  • Paprika?
  • Chili Powder?
  • Scallions?
  • Red bell pepper?
  • Dill?
  • Curry powder?
  • Radish?
• Be creative!

• A Blender

  Procedure

  Open one can of Garbanzo Beans, but don’t drain the liquid. Put the whole can, liquid and all, in the blender. Take the other can of Garbanzo beans, open it, and drain this one. Blend the first can’s worth in the blender for a moment, until it starts to break up and get pasty. This will be way too liquidy for hummus. But thats ok, because now you add the second can, the one you drained, and blend that in. Now you have garbanzo paste.

  Add the other ingredients, stirring them in, then running the blender to get them all mixed up. You can chop up the garlic first if you don’t have a vigorous blender, but I usually just toss the cloves in whole.

  A note about Tahini. First, what the hell is it? Its a butter made from sesame seeds. Tahini is to sesame seeds what peanut butter is to peanuts. It is a very pale tan color, almost grey, and it is fairly liquidy, more so than other nut butters. It seperates easily so make sure to give it a good stir. You can get it at many grocery stores in the Mediterranean or Middle Eastern sections, if they have them. You can also get it at most international food stores, and Whole Foods stores and other ‘natural’ stores often sell it in bulk. It has a lot of nutty bite to it, and makes good sauces when mixed with some lemon juice, garlic and water. It is also essential to the flavor of hummus.

  Once you’ve added all the main ingredients, you have a basic hummus that is good all on its own. Taste it, and see if you like it. If it needs more tangyness, add some more lemon juice. If it needs some more bite, add some more tahini. If it seems too thick, add a little bit more olive oil. If it is just missing ‘something’, you can try adding a little more salt, but go easy. Its easy to add more of something, hard to take it out.

  I recommend tasting all of the individual ingredients so you can get an idea of how they come together to make the final product. That will help you decide what you like more or less of.

  Once you have your basic hummus, its time to go nuts with some flavor. I personally like to add two or three chipotle peppers (a smoked jalapeno that is incredibly good, and quite spicy), some paprika for color, and a dash of onion powder. Sometimes I just add chili powder if I’m lazy. Chopped scallions can also be quite charming, as well as fresh or dried red bell pepper. Experiment with dill too. I’ve had great curry hummus, and fresh veggies like radishes can sometimes be surprisingly good. You can take a piece of pita bread, scoop up some of the raw hummus, and sprinkle some seasoning on it. Give it a try. You can try lots of seasonings this way, and you’ll surely find something you adore.

  Once you’ve seasoned your hummus, you can either eat it right away, or store it in the fridge overnight. The next day the flavors will have blended a bit better, and the bits of garbanzo bean will have soaked up some of the excess liquid and your hummus will have a slightly better texture. This recipe makes a lot of hummus though, so I usually just eat my fill after making it, and then the rest just needs to sit in the fridge anyway, so it all works out. If you have good tasty olive oil, a nice thing to do when you serve the hummus is make a small indentation in the top of the hummus pile and pour a bit of the olive oil in. Then as the hummus is eaten, the oil will drain over the surface of the hummus and add a nice flavor to each bite.

  I like to eat hummus with pita bread, just tearing hunks off the bread and scooping the hummus, but it also goes good on bagels, in sandwiches, on crackers, as an appetizer with olives, on fresh veggies, etc.

  Enjoy!

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