Hummus is great for dipping vegetables, but it also makes a wonderful salad dressing. I found a tasty organic version with spicy red peppers that I keep on hand for a quick meal, but today, I decided to make some from scratch.
First, I made my own tahini (recipe is posted here) but you can certainly buy some at your local ethnic or healthy grocery store. I used canned garbanzo beans because I live at a high altitude and have had very little success preparing dried beans that taste decent. Water boils at a lower temperature, so getting it hot enough to soften the beans is difficult. If you’re a raw foodist, you could use soaked garbanzos. I haven’t tried soaking garbanzos, but again, the pintos I tried to soak were awful. If you have suggestions on cooking or soakig dried beans from scratch at a high altitude, please share!
So, back to making the hummus… It’s a simple recipe you can use as a base and add other ingredients like roasted peppers, Kalamata olives, or whatever sounds good. I really like the simple traditional version. It has a nice subtle nutty flavor and doesn’t overpower.
1/4 cup tahini
1 25 oz. can garbanzo beans (rinsed and drained)
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs lemon juice
1 ½ cups water
Combine tahini, garbanzo beans, garlic, salt, lemon juice and ½ cup water in a food processor with the bottom blade setting. Blend all ingredients until smooth. Add additional water slowly through the process as needed until hummus reaches your desired thickness and smoothness. I like mine very smooth, so I blend it for about 10 minutes.
Makes about 2 cups.
