I’ve had several requests for this one.  It’s been my go to snack food during my new healthy eating this year.  And saved me from hunger attacks every day.  Healthy and filling – my kind of snack!

My friend, Suz, just rolled her eyes.  She was hoping for more quilts.  Or a recipe with butter and sugar.  Or <gasp> beef!  But I’m hanging in there with my new healthy eating.  And since I’ve actually had requests for the recipe on this one, I thought I’d comply.  Sorry Suz!

Chickpeas are the main ingredient in hummus.  Or garbanzo beans.  This can proves that they are the same thing.  I’ve been making my hummus with canned beans, but I just found dried ones recently at the grocery so I’ll be making this in the future with those.  I’ll let you know if I can tell a difference.

Garlic too.  Lots of garlic.  We love garlic at our house so sometimes I go overboard.  No vampires allowed in our place.

Chop the garlic into little chunks.  You can use a garlic press if you want to, but I prefer to chop it instead. 

Tahini is also a staple in hummus.  I had never used it before and even had a hard time finding it in the store.  Then I found a recipe online and now I make my own tahini.  I know, I know…. crazy vegan woman.  But the ingredients in tahini are just toasted sesame seeds and olive oil.  And I found a jar of toasted sesame seeds at the store before I found the actual tahini.  So I choose to make my own.  But you can buy the tahini if you want to.  I wouldn’t want you to become a crazy vegan woman.

So you just dump all the ingredients in the food processor and turn it on.  What’s that you say?  I didn’t tell you all the ingredients?  Sorry about that.  Here they are:

2 cans chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1/3 c tahini
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 tsp cumin
salt to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil (approximately – I just drizzle some in)
3-5 Tbsp water (for consistency)

Then I throw in a few roasted red peppers.  So far I’ve just used the store bought ones.  But one day soon I may just roast my own red peppers.  I’m a bit crazy about those things.

Then just whir that food processor until it looks like this.  Deliciousness.  I could eat the whole bowl with a spoon.

But I usually use celery or carrot sticks for dippers.  Until recently.  When I made my own pita chips!  Another online recipe find.  And they are easy.  And very good.

Brush olive oil on both sides of pita bread rounds.

Then cut each pita round into 8 pie-shaped wedges.

I did two rounds.  Put them on a cookie sheet…..

And sprinkle them with a little coarse salt.

Bake them at 450° for about 5 minutes.

These are great with hummus.  Or just by themselves.  Suz is rolling her eyes again.

And I’ve also tried various other things in the basic hummus recipe too.  Like artichokes.  And spinach.  Dear Hubby and I like the roasted red pepper the best.  But the artichokes were good too.  We weren’t too crazy about the spinach.

I have loads more recipes to share.  In fact, I spent several hours on the internet the other day printing some great ones.  Last night we had Red Lentil Tomato Stew and it was really deeeelish.  I’m also discovering greens that I never tried before.  Like swiss chard and kale.  Very interesting recipes for those two!  I’ll share them one day soon.

Even at the risk of having Suz roll her eyes again.  Love ya, Suz!

Hugs,
Barb