Adventures in foodstuffs

I've been adventuring with making a greater variety of cheap, good for you foods. Lately it's been beans, rice and lentils. I made a lentil and veggie tostada recipe that was well received by the adults in this family but the kids turned up their noses. Then I made a veggie stir fry with brown rice that was at least eaten by the children with minimal prodding. Then, I made a black bean burger that everyone loved (well, Jon only got to eat one reheated patty because he was gone the two nights I made it and no other burgers lasted). It was a great improvement over the chickpea burger that was all right in taste but kind of dry in consistency. This burger was just perfect. Nice and moist inside with a crispy cornmeal coating (say that ten times fast). Add tomato, lettuce and onion and a whole wheat organic bun and voila! Dinner perfection!

My burger with homegrown snap peas on the left (cooked from peas I picked and froze last year, Maine hasn't been that good to me yet)

So tonight was my second ever try at making homemade hummus. I tried years ago using canned chickpeas and a recipe that for some strange reason did not include tahini/seasame seeds. The result was a lemony chickpea nastiness that no one in the house liked and it scared me off of making hummus again for quite some time. But since we eat hummus like it's going out of style, I figured the time was ripe for me to give it another shot with my super awesome blend-anything machine and with a new recipe. The result was an excellent hummus recipe that only lacks a bit of seasoning, probably because I used garlic powder and not actual garlic.

Here is my recipe:

- 2 15oz cans of chickpeas, one drained, one undrained (I used fresh cooked chickpeas, so 3 cups of cooked plus 1/2 cup or more of water for consistency)
- 1/4 cup raw sesame seeds (I used toasted and it was fine)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, peeled (here I used garlic powder and it was quite garlicky enough)
- 1 tsp cumin
- salt

You puree everything but the salt until it reaches the consistency you want (add water gradually to make it thinner). Then you add salt to taste. You can easily make this into different flavors by adding things such as pureed roasted red pepper, pureed spinach and artichoke, extra garlic or hot pepper powder to the base hummus. I highly recommend using fresh cooked chickpeas. A 1lb bag of dry chickpeas yields about 6-6 1/2 cups of cooked chickepeas, which is enough for two batches of hummus. This recipe makes about 3-4 cups of hummus depending on what else you add to it, how much you can get out of your food processor/blender, and whether your husband and/or children eat some of it when you're not looking. Cost wise, this recipe is excellent. On a good day, when the big tubs of hummus are going on sale, I can nab two for $5 or $2.50 apiece. On a bad day they cost me $3.49 per tub. This recipe, even with super expensive sesame seeds ($3.99 for a little container), only costs me $1.65 per batch which makes more than I can buy in the tub. Win!

Om nom nom...homemade hummus.