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Hummus Dip

 

4/22/2013

I have been slightly addicted to hummus dip!

Someone told me that I could make my own and ever since, I have been wanting to try making my own.  I heard it is cheaper.

First, I was in the grocery store weeks ago looking for "chick peas" and could not find any, so I grabbed my phone and did an internet search and found they were the same as garbonzo beans.  I've never eaten garbonzo beans that I know of, but they always catch my eye because they are just so fun to say! 

So I bought some.  Then I came home and looked up the recipes online only to find out I needed tahini!  What in the world is that!  Oh, it is pureed sesame seeds.  Okay, well, I like sesame seeds, but would I like them pureed?  It was weeks until I went to the store again and I found the bottle of tahini in the oriental section of the store (of course, the last isle I went down!).

Since I purchased a single serve blender on Thursday, I decided to try making it in the single serve blender on Friday.

 

I put 1/4 tahini cup and 1/4 cup lemon juice in the blender.  This is a bad cell phone photo, but I took it to show how much of the jar was used.  I believe it is about 1/6th, so I should be able to make five more batches with the tahnini, which is good because this bottle cost over $7.  I estimate the tahini per batch to be a little over $1.25, which is not too bad.  I had some fresh lemons, but I also had jarred lemon juice, which I decided to use for convenience. 

I blended the two ingredients for about a minute, then took a spatula and shoved it all around, then blended some more, then repeated.  I understand this is an important step to getting smooth hummus dip.  Since I was using an expensive personal sized blender, I was careful not to burn up the machine, taking my time.

 Next I added 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic to taste, 1 tablespoon cumin, and 1 teaspoon salt.  Now, I love garlic, but I think I got a bit carried away and added a little too much! There are so many varieties of garlic, from fresh, to jarred, to dried, I would suggest just adding your favorite type of garlic.  In fact, you might use garlic salt to replace the regular salt. 

I love cumin too, but I do not think I can ever add enough of it to my foods and cook with it all the time. 

 Of course, more blending and more blending!  I might have to blend less if I had a food processor, but I do not own one.

Next, I rinsed the can of garbonzo beans well and added them and blended and scrapped and blended away!  I discovered my little blender could not handle it well without some water added, so I added about a 1/4 cup of water and blended some more.

Here is the final hummus dip!   I'm pouring it into a fancy bowl because everything looks better in a fancy bowl.

I had read to add more olive oil to the top, as well as paprika, but this is more for looks than taste.  I decided it did not need the olive oil as that just adds a lot more calories, so next time, I am just going to decorate with paprika or maybe even cilantro.

I have these crackers that are ultra thin and lower in calories that have become my new "thing."   Also, I am addicted to cheeses too!  I am learning I love the sharp cheeses better than the mellow cheeses.  Cheese makes everything better!

Here goes a little hummus dip on my yummy cracker!

Top it all with a little bit of cheese and oh enjoy yumm-o!
I actually use a much smaller piece of cheese than this photo, just to spread out the calories and the enjoyment.  It is the cheese that has the most to-the-muffin-top calories.

I also like hummus as the "mayo" for sandwiches or wraps.  It really makes the wraps stick together well.

I also love dipping carrots and celery into hummus dip.

Now this was a lot of work and I'm not sure how much money I saved, so I am not sure I will do this all the time, but my brain is already working on other ideas and ways to vary the hummus dip that I might not find in the store.

Here's what I am going to try:
Adding fresh spinach (hmmmm... it would be green though)
Adding feta cheese
Adding onions
Adding cilantro
Adding tomatoes
Adding roasted red peppers
Adding pine nuts
Adding artichoke
Using "white beans" (I would try black beans because I love to eat them, but there's something about pureed black that makes it look like.....uh, yeah)