Blue Jean Gourmet / Hummus (yay hummus!)

A few of you/a lot of you (I don't know?) may have wandered over to Blue Jean Gourmet (link on right), my friend and fellow turkey Nishta's new-ish food blog whose delightful recipes, witty anecdotes, and beautiful photographs have been a more-than-welcome addition to my Google Reader.

Although I enjoy reading many food blogs--not my main blog "vice," if you will, but steady enjoyment nonetheless--I seldom actually venture to the store to buy the ingredients involved in these beautiful recipes I stumble across. And I am not yet enough of a grown-up to just have a ton of ingredients on-hand (but thank you, Nishta, for the grocery guide on your site, how helpful!).

So last week, we were having friends over, and I thought, what a perfect time to try to make my own hummus. And oh yeah, Nishta posted a delicious and feasible-looking recipe with not too many scary ingredients.

Plus, my dear friend Erin had just recently been telling me how delicious and easy and fun it was to make your own hummus. And it's hummus--I love hummus. (So does my dear husband--always a plus.)

Without further ado:

[photo by Sonya Cuellar]


HUMMUS

(full recipe here)

(I used my Cuisinart.)

ingredients:

1 16 oz. can (approx. 2 cups) chickpeas, a.k.a. garbanzo beans (yes i used canned)
2 T tahini a.k.a tahina/tahine (had to go to Fresh Market for this)
2-4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped (oops, I used minced from the fridge)
1 t salt (I decreased the salt b/c used canned chickpeas)
½ tsp. ground cumin
juice of 1 lemon (used a real lemon, actually)
½ cup water, more if needed
¼ cup olive oil

Place all ingredients except olive oil in food processor or blender. Process until smooth, adding water as needed until desired texture is reached. (I probably did about 1/4 cup water at first and it was fine, but just see what thickness you like.) Check the hummus’ taste and add extra garlic, salt, or cumin accordingly. Finally, with the processor or blender running, pour in olive oil.

I served it with cut celery, carrots, and toasted some gyro bread that I sliced up into wedges. YUM!

I have now made this twice! Once you buy the jar of tahine, the other ingredients are cheap and easy to come by. It's DEFINITELY cheaper than buying containers of hummus (and more tasty, in my opinion). Also, I don't know how fast it goes bad because we've eaten every drop of it so quickly!

Thanks, Nishta! I will definitely venture to the store more often to try out your goodies (the granola and the fruit salad both look divine).

Be sure to check out her beautiful blog and yummy recipes.