Hummus

Today my sister and her husband came over with his parents and my grandma. We had a nice meal. They are on their way back to Spain now and we will miss them. We ate some good stuff though. I made Chili Lime Grilled Chicken, which I didn't get a picture of. Black Bean Confetti Salad, from a previous entry. My grandma brought a pasta salad. For appetizers, I had shrimp cocktail and Hummus. I decided that I needed to make the hummus.

This was my first time making hummus. I knew I wanted to use dried beans because Ive read that the taste is so much better. I set out to find a yummy, creamy recipe and found this one originally from Cooks Illustrated. I pretty much followed it to a tee, but I forgot to put the whole garbanzo beans on top for garnish. Oh well, it still looked and tasted great! And I made mine in a blender since my food processor is really tiny. Id say for a first attempt is was really good. And nice and healthy too! You cant beat that. I ate the leftovers late last night with celery! YUMMY!

Restaurant Style Hummus

(Cook's Illustrated)

1/4 cup water
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
6 Tablespoons well stirred tahini
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 15 ounce can drained and rinsed chickpeas (I used dried beans, soaked overnight then cooked for 90 minutes)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
pinch of cayenne
about 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

Combine the water and lemon juice in one bowl, and the tahini and oil in another. Set aside about 12 of the whole chickpeas for a garnish.

Put the chickpeas, salt, garlic, cumin, and cayenne in a food processor and process for about 15 seconds. Scrap down the sides of the processor. Then add the lemon water mix through the feed tube with the processor running for about 1 minute. Scrap down the sides several times. Then add the oil and tahini, with the processor running, until the hummus is fluffy.

Put the hummus in a bowl, garnish with the cilantro and whole chickpeas, and drizzle with some olive oil if you want.