Hummus

Yesterday, I finished off a store bought container of hummus. When I looked at the list of ingredients, I nearly went into shock. It listed nearly 20 ingredients many of which I couldn't pronounce let alone know what they were. I had made my own hummus years ago, and I dug up the recipe, and made it tonight after Ken left.

Hummus, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is a Middle Eastern dish which is combination of garbanzo (chick peas), tahini (ground sesame seeds), oil, and garlic. Although some of these ingredients may sound exotic, they are not that difficult to find. If I can get them in a small town in Iowa, you should be able to find them just about anywhere. However, it was funny trying to locate tahini in the local HyVee tonight. Ken was with me, and we were both wandering around looking for it. He kept asking, "Now what's it called again?" And I kept spelling "t-a-h-i-n-i," and adding, "It's ground sesame seeds." I finally happened upon a store employee, and although he had no idea what I was asking for, he made a call to somewhere, I suspect somewhere celestial. And sure enough, he was able to locate it.

It doesn't look good. Even the stock picture above isn't pretty, but it's very tasty. I had Ken try it tonight. He doesn't like it, but he doesn't like spicy things the way I do.

It would be a very easy dish to whip up if I had a food processor. I think the first time I made it, I used a potato masher to mash the garbanzos. I remember, that didn't work out well. This time I tried to run it through my meat grinder attachment to my Kitchenaide. The grinder did not work either The beans are too hard for a potato masher and too mushy for a meat grinder. Given how much I like to cook, I've decided that I need to get myself a food processor. This is ridiculous and I can't tell you how many times I could have used one.

Anyway, hummus makes a great spread, dip, and I even like it as a meat substitute in sandwiches and wraps.

I have no idea where I got this recipe. I wish I could give credit where credit is due.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large cloves garlic
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans (chick peas)
1 cup plain non-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons tahini
1 teaspoon cumin
Lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste.

Process these ingredients together until smooth.

This recipe makes 10, 20 tablespoon servings. Each serving contains 54.4 Calories.