Since I’m going to be home for awhile and I know that I will be snacking, I decided to have some more health conscience snacks options around. I have never really had much hummus, but I hear about it all the time. Pinterest is inundated with everybody’s favorite recipe for the creamiest, most flavorful, most authentic, most whatever hummus. After looking through some different pinned recipes, I hopped to HEB like a good little bunny and got what I was missing – mainly sesame seeds for Tahini & chickpeas (or garbanzo, depending on the part of the world you’re in). Which recipe did I use you ask? None of them. lol I took the sum of the knowledge I gathered and made my own. Is it authentic? I do not know nor do I care. Is it delicious? Why yes, yes it is. And that, I care about.
I started by dry toasting 4 oz by weight (why so exact? Because I bought 4 packs of sesame seeds and they were 1 oz each. By the way, this equates to nearly a cup by volume.) in my toaster oven. Then I ground them up in my food processor. Once they were nice and mealy I started adding extra virgin oil a couple of tablespoons at time. I think I ended up using just shy of 1/4 c. The point though is that you’re looking for a nice paste consistency. As far as extra virgin vs any other olive oil… you can use what you like but keep in mind that you’re not cooking this so you the better the olive oil tastes, the better your hummus will taste.
Now to make some hummus (which I am
devouring snacking on as I write up this post :) ). I poured/scooped most of my Tahini out of my food processor and just left about 2 or 3 heaping tablespoon. Then I added my lemon juice, some garlic, and about a tablespoon of oil and gave it a werr. Now it was time to add my chickpeas. I used one 15 oz can that I drained over a bowl, so that all of that flavorful canning liquid wasn’t lost. Next, I pureed the mess out of the peas. Once I was happy that the were satisfactorily mashed into submission, I added the other tablespoonish of oil. Then about a tablespoon at a time I added the canning liquid until I had a happy consistency.
Now it was time to amp up the flavor. I added salt to my taste, but felt something was still missing. So, I went to the spice cabinet. I added oh, I’d say about a heaping 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder and a heaping teaspoon of cumin to the mix, which made me happy, happy, happy.
I’ll tell you what this stuff is creamy, addicting, cannot-get-enough-in-your-mouth good and pretty darn healthy :)
The other day I found a Pinterest post about Blueberry Banana Bread that had a special ingredient in it - Greek yogurt! I didn't have any blueberries, but I did have strawberries, so what did I make... Strawberry Banana Bread! Honestly, I LOVE banana bread. BUT, banana bread is my baking nemesis. I have tried dozens of recipes. Everything from old church lady recipes to modern test kitchen recipes. It always comes out underdone in the center and usually burnt on the edges. I HIGHLY recommend this bread. It was easy and delicious! AND, it came out perfectly! This is definitely my go-to banana bread recipe from now on. Thank you so much, Emily!!!!
