Yummy & Easy Hummus

chick-peas.jpgWhen the warm weather returned, so did my voracious appetite for salads and cold things such as hummus and tabbouleh. We've been consuming vast quantities of these foods (I especially like hummus because it reminds me to eat carrots) and I soon found myself disgruntled by the volume of plastic containers we were acquiring. We reuse them all for storing leftovers or Laurel's craft supplies or other odds and ends, but we definitely don't need more of them. So I decided to start making more of these small container items from scratch. I'm still tweaking my tabbouleh recipe and will share that when I land on just the right blend; meanwhile, if you have a food processor, hummus is ridiculously easy to make.
I experimented with a few different hummus recipes, but I really like the stability and consistency of the one from Nick Stellino's Mediterranean Flavors (there are also tons of other fantastic recipes in this book). The hummus doesn't get stinky over time with the raw garlic gloves (though we consume a batch of hummus within a matter of days...the garlic flavor will intensify if it continues to age). Alternatively, I've also swapped in loads of roasted garlic (yum). I think the recipe also would hold well if you wanted to get fancy with a little roasted red pepper, artichoke, or spinach.

But for me, speed is key. Here's the base:

  • 1 15 ounce can chickpeas
  • 4 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 4 tablespoons tahini
  • 2 tablespoons hot water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 garlic cloves

    *Stellino also adds 1/8 teaspoon cumin and 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper but I skip these steps and it's still delicious.

    Simply toss all of the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. How easy is that?

    Now, my one challenge is that while we benefit from eating from scratch, making this hummus doesn't resolve the packaging problem. This batch will make about the equivalent of a 16-ounce container of hummus -- which means you still end up with a chick pea can instead of a store-bought hummus container. Subsequently, my next plan is to buy a bag of dry chickpeas, follow the steps to cook the entire bag (I remember this being a sort of onerous process, so I want to do it all at once), bag the extra cooked chickpeas in 15-ounce portions, and toss the bags in the freezer for future hummus making.

    Image credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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