How to make Hummus (easy peasy and yummy)

By Heather Ledeboer | Category: Recipes & Kitchen Tips

Get ready, this stuff is uber good!

• 1 cup dried chickpeas
• 3 cloves raw garlic
• 1/3 cup sesame tahini
• Juice from 1 large lemon (about 3 Tablespoons)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 bulb roasted garlic (optional but oh so good).  Simply cut of the very top layer of the bulb of garlic, drizzle olive oil and Thyme on top and wrap it in tin foil.  Cook for 180 degrees for about 30 min or until soft.  Then simply squeeze the bulbs out!  I use my toaster oven for this and it works great.
• 1 roasted red pepper (optional but also, very good).  You can find how to roast red peppers here.
• Sun dried tomatoes, chopped up and added to taste (yum, yum–remember when I showed you how to make these at home)?

1) Soak the dried chickpeas in cold water for 6 hours. Drain and rinse. Put in medium saucepan with 1 quart of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover, cook until tender, about 1 1/2 hours.

2) Drain chickpeas, saving out some of the cooking water. Place chickpeas and all other ingredients into a food processor. Blend until smooth. Add as much of the chickpea cooking water as you need to create the desired consistency.  You may notice that my chick peas look much darker than yours, they are just a different variety than the whiter kind.  I have tried making Hummus with both kinds and they both turn out very good.

3) Add any of the optional ingredients to create a variety of flavors.

4) Place in covered container and chill in the refrigerator. Serve with additional olive oil drizzled over the top (optional).

Enjoy!

Can you see where Quinten gets his stellar blue eyes?!

And in case you are not really familiar with what Tahini is (and don’t worry because many grocery store employees are not either), I have included a photo for you below.  I believe it is basically blended up sesame seeds.  Also shown below are the kind of chips we love to use with our Hummus.  I get them from Costco.

Oh and you might consider making a double batch, this stuff goes fast at our house!  Do you use ZipList?  Here is this Hummus recipe in my ZipList recipe folder for you to use.

Want to find some more great (and healthy) recipes?  Click here!

Posted Monday, February 7, 2011