HUMMUS:THE HEALTHY DIP

Other day we had a guest over who was about to visit Middle East and Israel. He is a vegetarian so his biggest worry was the kind of food available in those countries.  He told us he was planning to pack lots of Indian snacks with him so that he could survive the four-five days tour. Just then I decided to cook some authentic Middle Eastern vegetarian dishes to give him some options available in those countries.  I cooked falafal, hummus, lentil pilaf with the yogurt and cucumber dip. I must acknowledge he enjoyed the food and took some generous helpings.

Just like a good host in the Middle East, I enjoyed my food being appreciated.  It is a known fact that hospitality in the Middle Eastern countries is considered a duty.  "If people are standing at the door of your house, don't shut it before them," and "Give the guest food to eat even though you yourself are starving," are two sayings which remind people of this duty.

 I have never visited any Middle Eastern country so my only experience of eating Lebanese, Persian, Jordanian or Greek food comes from dinning out in Chicago's Arab town restaurants.  With that in mind, I decided to make Hummus from scratch.

Today, hummus is very popular as a side dish, dip or spread, all over the globe.  Since it is a very healthy dip, health food stores have come up with different flavors of Hummus. There is hardly any party where hummus is not served as an appetizer.  It is made with cooked and mashed chickpeas, sesame seeds, olive oil and lemon juice.  Most people make hummus with tahini but I have made it by roasting and grinding sesame seeds.  The quality of hummus does not suffer with this process.

Ingredients:

2 cups chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked, 3/4 cup olive oil, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, juice of 1 medium size lemon, 1/2 tsp paprika or degi lal mirch,1/2 tsp  freshly ground black pepper,  1 tsp cumin powder, 1 cup sesame seeds roasted and powdered OR 1 cup tahini, salt to taste.

Method:

Roast the sesame seeds and then powder them finely.  Blend the cooked chickpeas, all the spices, salt and garlic in a food processorl.  Add the powdered sesame seeds, lemon juice and olive oil to the chickpeas mix and blend to smooth paste.  Garnish with olive oil and paprika. 

Enjoy with chips, vegetables or falafal.

Recipe for Falafal will be in the next blog.