Hummus

Homemade hummus is easy, fast, and super yummy! It's also impossible to go wrong, and you can vary the ingredients any way you like depending on the flavor you want.

Today I made a traditional hummus with a few added spices.

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas (or you can buy beans and soak them overnight)
1/4 c water from chickpeas
2 T olive oil
Juice of 1 small lemon
1-3 T tahini
1-2 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 t salt
pepper, to taste

Optional:
cumin & paprika, to taste
roasted red pepper
roasted garlic

Because hummus is very personal (I find), all the ingredients are estimates. I usually just toss in a little bit of everything without measuring and taste as I go until I like the flavor.

It's best to make hummus in some type of food processor or blender, although I have a friend who makes it by hand with a potato masher and hers was delicious.

Combine all ingredients in the food processor except the water, being conservative at first (maybe half the lemon juice, 1 T tahini, 1 clove garlic). As it's mixing, add the water slowly until desired consistency is reached. Taste and add more ingredients until you're satisfied with the flavor.

If you're making roasted red pepper/roasted garlic, before you make the hummus preheat your oven to 400 F. Take an entire head of garlic and slice off about 1/4'' on top so most of the cloves are exposed. Drizzled olive oil over the cloves so it soaks inside and sprinkle with seasoning/spices if desired. Wrap in aluminum foil and place on a baking tray with the red pepper. Bake for 20-30 minutes, turning the pepper until the skin is blackened on all sides. Remove from oven & remove the pepper skin when it's cool enough to handle. Save as much juice as possible and add this to the hummus with your pepper. The garlic will be easy to remove from its skin as well and extra can be stored in the fridge.