Hummus

I am constantly reading my cookbooks, so when I found the hummus recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian I was basically ready to try it immediately. Lucky for me, it couldn't be easier. With minimal ingredients and a ton of possible variations, this is something everyone should be making at home. I have been carefully checking ingredients lists lately, and preservatives and chemicals are NOT things that I want to eat. Unfortunately, my (former) favorite hummus brand (Sabra) is not present at Whole Foods*, which is a kind of lazy trick I use to decide whether I want to eat something. The reason it is my favorite is because of the big pile of seasonings and whole chickpeas and other random good tasting stuff in the middle. But if I make my own... I can just add that in myself.

For this particular batch of hummus I used organic canned chickpeas, and chose paprika as my spice (Mark Bittman offers cumin as the other option in the basic recipe). I also used extra garlic and extra lemon. One caution is that it comes out very very thick - that is why he has you add water, to thin it out. However, keep in mind that it will thicken up in the fridge, so you should make it thinner than you want to initially.

This hummus is something that I will definitely be making again and would be a great option to bring to a party or picnic. The picture may not be that easy to identify, but it is me holding a pita chip with some hummus on it.

*I don't buy everything at Whole Foods... I don't even make it there very often. But when I do go, I spend a LOT of time there and I really pay attention to what is around me. I can trust them to have "foods that are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats"(according to their website). So I pay attention to things I see there and if I see them at a conventional grocery store, I feel much better about picking them up without thoroughly examining the ingredient list.