Hummus

I took some homemade hummus to a party last night and people were asking me for the recipe. So often I refer people to just come to this website, that it made me realize that we don't have a hummus recipe posted yet--and we should because it's a kind of staple that's so dang easy to make, so delicious to eat, and soooo much cheaper than buying it from the store. (p.s. As a time saver, when I cook up dried chickpeas, I'll cook enough dried beans to make some hummus and a couple of other meals. The cooked beans will last refrigerated for about a week.)

Hummus is very flexible with seemingly endless variations--olive oil, roasted garlic, pine nuts, cumin, black olives, roasted red peppers, etc..... The blog Section 89 has a link to a nice tutorial here with some good variations. If you have any other variations, please share them with us! However, I usually start with this basic recipe from The Moosewood Cookbook :

Hummus

Humus is a chickpea pate of Middle-Eastern origins. It is a spicy and rich spread, full of protein. You can use it as a sandwich spread or an appetizer-dip. Scoop it up with pieces of pocket bread and sticks of raw vegetables. You can also build an entire meal around a plateful of humus, vegetables, and bread. It's filling enough.

1 1/2 cups raw chickpeas, soaked 1 1/2 hours and simmered for 1 1/2 hours until very soft
3 med. cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp salt dash of tamari (or soy sauce is an acceptable substitute)
juice from 2 med. lemons
3/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup (packed) finely minced parsley
lots of black pepper and a dash of cayenne
1/4 cup minced scallions

Mash chickpeas to thick paste using masher or food processor. Combine everything and chill thoroughly. Add some of the reserved juice from your chickpeas to achieve a desired consistency. Taste to correct seasonings--extra garlic, tamari, salt, tahini, etc.