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Laura
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What?
Tired of all the cheesy and all the creamy dips? Then give in to the famous middle-eastern dip called hummus. Just like any another dips, hummus is usually eaten with flat breads, tortillas, fresh veggies, chips and crackers. You can also add any spices of your choice: garlic, red pepper, onion, lemon or pine nuts. You can also add chopped celery, carrot, cucumber, broccoli and other crispy vegetables. It all depends what is appetizing to your mouth.
Where?
You don’t have to go to the Middle East. Hummus is becoming popular in the United Stated and can be purchased from deli counters or from grocery stores. It’s available in cans or in plastic containers. You might as well want to do homemade hummus since preparation is just easy. No cooking needed! Just buy canned garbanzos, tahini or sesame seeds paste and vegetable oil. It’s also up to you if want to cook garbanzo seeds and make your own sesame seeds paste.
How?
Food processor is all it takes to make hummus. Here are the quick and easy steps:
1. Drain 1-2 cans of garbanzos. The canned garbanzos are more ideal because it’s easy to mash up compared to cooked ones.
2. Put the drained garbanzos in your food processor. Power it on and mash.
3. Add the tahini paste. It should be about 1/5 or 1/4 of the combined ingredients.
4. Add in the spices or the chopped crispy vegetables you want.
5. You can also add spices little by little to avoid adding more garbanzos and tahini paste.
6. If the paste is a little too stiff, add a little amount of vegetable oil or water until it gets smooth.
Why?
Hummus is a healthy food junkie’s delight because of its main ingredients – garbanzo beans and tahini or sesame seeds paste. Garbanzo beans are rich in fiber, low in fat and a good source of protein. Sesame seeds are also rich in fiber and contains vitamin E. Both also contain phytochemicals and antioxidants which protect cells from damage caused by free radicals to prevent the body from developing cancer and other diseases.
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