All Things Chill

“…Is hummus easy to make?”

SURE IS JACS! And as much as I’d like to write my own recipe, Alton Brown (always) does it best. Here are his instructions for turbo hummus from his “Pantry Raid II: Cool Beans” episode:

Ingredients:
2 to 3 cloves garlic
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and liquid reserved
2 to 3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
A handful fresh parsley leaves
1 lemon, zested and juiced
Pinch freshly ground black pepper
Pinch kosher salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions:
Chop the garlic finely in a food processor. Add the beans and 1/2 of the reserved liquid and process finely or to desired consistency. Add the peanut butter, parsley, lemon zest and juice, black pepper, and salt. Process until it forms a paste. Drizzle in the olive oil and process until it reaches the consistency of mayonnaise.

Thanks AB. Traditionally, hummus calls for Tahini, a paste made out of sesame seeds, instead of peanut butter. There is a slight difference in taste, but it doesn’t really hurt the overall ‘experience’. PB is most likely already in your fridge anyway. There’s no sense in braving the cold for a uni-tasking ingredient.

Personally, I like to add a little more garlic and a last second splash of lemon juice to make it a lil’ mo’ fresh-er. If you’re serving hummus as a dip, with a sprinkle of paprika for color… That’s what my local restaurant does.

I like to put hummus in a honey wheat pita with fresh greens and thick slices of holiday turkey. It’s so much more than your everyday sandwich and it’s just as easy to make. It could even work on an onion bagel with fresh tomato slices for a low-fat option mid-morning snack.

So yeah. There ya go Jacs. Save me some plz!

XOXO

~Spec

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 28th, 2005 at 8:13 am and is filed under Cheap [and GOOD] Eats, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.