Hummus!

Hummus has been a staple in my diet at home for a really long time. After we went to a Mediterranean restaurant when I was young, we quickly looked up a recipe and have been making our own ever since. This recipe is based off of a recipe I found online, but I've made some changes to suit my taste and because of my experience in making hummus over and over again! We're a big fan of appetizer dinners at my house, and hummus was and is still a common staple on our tray of snacks.

Hummus is so easy to make at home, and the ingredients are really cheap too (except the tahini, perhaps, but at 1/4 cup per recipe, you don't go through it too fast!), so I hope you give this one a shot if you have access to a food processor, blender, or any other food processing device (I MacGyver-ed this one using my housemate's Magic Bullet- so fun!). This is a recipe for a traditional plain hummus, but feel free to spice it up with almost anything- other spices, sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, etc. to make it your own!


The ingredients for hummus, with the water from the beans in the red cup, just to show you!


Hummus
-2 cans garbanzo beans/chick peas (same thing), reserve the water
-1/4 cup tahini
-1/3 cup lemon juice
-2 cloves garlic
-1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
-olive oil
-paprika
-minced fresh parsley (optional)
Blend garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt, and garlic in food processor, adding a splash or two of olive oil and as much of the water from the beans as you need to give the hummus a nice smooth texture (I usually end up using about 1/2 of it).
Transfer to serving bowl, and drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with paprika and parsley (if using). Enjoy!



A beautifully unadorned bowl of hummus- I'm dressing it up for dinner tonight with pita (check the next post!!) and lots of veggies- yum!

Savor it!
love, rue