Recipe for
HEALTHY HUMMUS
or houmous – depending upon how you like to spell it!
For this very simple and super quick recipe you will need:
Approx 600g chick peas (also known by their Spanish name garbanzos)
The juice of one small lemon
½ cup Extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic (fresh peeled, roasted or smoked)
¼ cup of water
¼ teaspoon of salt
Tips:
1. Measurements should be as near as possible but really don’t need to be exact as the water and oil content will vary according to personal taste and consistency required. 2. If you haven’t the time or inclination to cook your chick peas from scratch, then it’s fine to use jars or cans but make sure you rinse them really well, through a sieve, until all the foamy bubbles have disappeared and the chick peas are ‘clean’. Don't use the water that comes with the pre-cooked product. It spoils not only the flavour but also the texture of the finished recipe - and if consumed can seriously aggravate intestinal gas ! 3. If you haven’t made hummus before, bear in mind that you may need to make several attempts before you achieve the taste and consistency you are looking for. For example, you might like yours more lemony, more salty or garlicky, thicker, smoother or crunchier, with more olive oil or less. 4. This is a basic version which we use regularly at home on savoury biscuits, as a dip, or a topping for jacket potatoes and other starch-based meals. We also like to include it with Indian/Nepali recipes (it's delicious with vegetable samosas and cooling with spicy dishes) or with Middle Eastern falafal fritters. Chick peas are a great source of vegetarian protein but, contrarily, because they have a high starch content (they contain more starch than protein), for the purposes of food combining I find that hummus combines best with carbs. It certainly makes a sustaining spread for Richard's olive and tomato soda bread, oat or rice cakes or rye crackers. It’s also delicious with poppadums. Or, unless you are avoiding wheat, go Greek and load it onto pitta bread. |
GOOD FOR YOU
Hummus is not only tasty and filling, it's highly nutritious, rich in dietary fibre and gluten free. Note that this is a very basic hummus recipe with the simplest ingredients. Depending upon your food preferences, there are lots of other delicious things you can add to ring the changes: traditional tahini paste, roasted red bell peppers, black olives, black pepper, sunflower seeds, cumin, pimenton or herbs like fresh flat leaf parsley or fresh coriander leaves are just some of the variations that we include at home. Method: First, prepare your chick peas, making sure they are washed, rinsed and drained really well before use. Next, add the garlic, salt, lemon juice and olive oil to the blender. Turn it on to the slowest speed and then, through the feed hole, load the chick peas a few at a time. This usually helps to prevent the mixture jamming up. If the blender does ‘stick’, which it can do a few times at the beginning, stop and scrape the contents down, and if needed, add the water and/or a little more olive oil to get it running again. Once it’s blended (make it either crunchy or super smooth to suit your own taste), scrape the hummus out into a bowl or jar. Cover and put in the fridge. This hummus will keep in the refrigerator for up to four days. |
So is it humus, hummus, houmous?
Hummus or houmous are the two most common spellings in English used to describe chick pea paste. The word has its roots in Turkish, Arabic and Greek and houmous in its various forms is a staple food in all of these countries. Not to be confused with the similarly named 'humus', the fibrous matter made into compost and used to improve the condition of soil.
Hummus or houmous are the two most common spellings in English used to describe chick pea paste. The word has its roots in Turkish, Arabic and Greek and houmous in its various forms is a staple food in all of these countries. Not to be confused with the similarly named 'humus', the fibrous matter made into compost and used to improve the condition of soil.