homemade hummus

sea salt
Originally uploaded by shaunaforce.

Whoever invented hummus deserves my undying gratitude. Unfortunately, man or woman, I have no idea who it is. However, every time I take a generous mouthful, I bow to you.

I could live off chickpeas every single day. Thankfully, now that I am living gluten-free, I am eating more and more of them (also called garbanzo beans), and in better recipes.

Before the diagnosis, I used to fling the Trader Joe's original hummus tubs in my shopping cart without thinking. But when I realized in horror that even those have gluten in them (why? this makes no sense to me), I had to make my own.

The shadows bring out the light.

I stumbled on a great recipe for homemade hummus in Karen Robertson's Cooking Gluten-Free. I highly recommend this book. It's filled with gourmet recipes, which I truly appreciate, since some of the people I have met who eat gluten-free insist on also eating taste-free. These are recipes compiled by a true gourmand, who also knows enough great chefs across the country to include delectables from Tom Douglas and someone from Aureole. Yum. Plus, she lives in Queen Anne, somewhere around here, only a few blocks from me. So, huzzah!

I hope that is enough raving that she won't mind that I include the recipe here:

--one can of chickpeas (you can make your own, and I'm sure it's more gratifying, but I still use a can)
--five tablespoons of tahini (I use Maranatha roasted organic)
--three tablespoons of olive oil (try the Sicilian one I linked to in an earlier entry. you're not going to believe it.)
--the juice of two lemons (I'm big on lemons)
--two to four cloves of garlic (I'm even bigger on garlic, so it's four to five for me.)
--half a tablespoon of sea salt (see note below)
--1/4 cup of reserved liquid from chickpeas

That's the basic entry. Whirl it all up in the food processor and you're done. I like it chunky and recognizeable, but you might want to pound it around some more.

Also, you can add anything you want. Lately, I've been pouring in kalamata olives and handfuls of cilantro. YUM.

On top of all this, hummus is a perfect protein. No need to combine with anything else, other than Ener-G sesame pretzels or Trader Joe's soy and flaxseed chips. Oh goodness.

p.s. A note about sea salt. I'm a raving loonie when it comes to this stuff. It's only in the last year that I even ventured into the expensive bottles of salt area of the store. I'll never go back to regular salt again. Twice the flavor with half the sodium. It makes all foods pop out. My latest find is the one pictured here: Vignalta from Venice. Buy it. You won't believe how good it is.