Esmes hummus

In January we celebrated our parents 60th anniversary.  We snacked and celebrated all weekend! 

My niece, Esme, was the hit of the party with her home made hummus. She also brought a lovely salsa. So nice!

This gorgeous young woman is our Esme.  Her hummus recipe follows!

Hummus:

The ingredients:

2 cups canned chick peas, drained (save the liquid in a measuring cup)

1/4 cup Tahini (you may want to experiment with the exact amount.  Tastes can verywidely on this one 

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon of salt

          2 cloves of garlic (the original recipe calls for them halved, though I prefer to use a garlic press)

Directions:

1) Put the ingredients (aside from the liquid from the drained chick peas) in the food processor and blend it.

2) Add the liquid a little bit at a time until it reaches the consistency you most prefer.(Adding the liquid from the chick peas this way gives you more control over the consistency of the hummus.)

3) Once the hummus has been thoroughly blended and reached the consistency you most prefer, taste it and decide if you want to adjust the proportions of the ingredients.  If you do, there are two things to keep in mind at this point.  One is that the flavor develops in your mouth and if you react too fast, you might end up making a change based on only the first bit of it.  The second is that time is an ingredient, too, and the finished product will always taste better after it's had some time time for the flavors to mingle.  Predicting how the freshly blended taste will translate into the final taste is a skill that I think has to be learned by doing.  It's a nonverbal thought process, and I can't really explain it.

         4) enjoy :)

The above will make basic humus, but it's fun to experiment with adding different ingredients and make different kinds.  For example, I particularly enjoy making humus with pepperoncini peppers (currently my favorite pepper, and not just because of the fun name).  One thing thing to keep in mind with these experiments is that adding extra liquid ingredients will affect the consistency, so you might want to add them before step two.

I hope you have fun trying it out.  :)

Love,

Esme