Looking for a way to add some protein to your diet? Eat hummus. The combination of chickpeas and sesame seed paste (tahini) creates a dish with all the essential ammino acids. Now hummus is pretty easy to find in the supermarket today, but why buy it, when making it isn't that hard. Alton Brown shared his hummus recipe on a recent episode of Good Eats entitled "Pantry Raid XIII - Destination Chickpea". Click here for the full recipe. Below you will find my notes from my own experience with this recipe.
1. Alton gives several ways to prepare the chickpeas for use. This recipe calls for the slow cooker method. I placed my chickpeas in my slow cooker with water, salt, and baking soda (helps break down the chickpeas by making the water slightly alkaline). Four hours later I had chickpeas that were perfectly ready for my food processor.
2. You only need half of the chickpeas that Alton calls for in the slow cooker recipe for this method. At first I dumped all my chickpeas in the food processor and noticed the lack of space. The hummus recipe says 1 pound of cooked chickpeas. When you cook the chickpeas their weight increases with the absorption of water.
3. It's very important you stir your tahini. It naturally separates. If you are looking for it in the store, check the Mediterranean section of your supermarket.
4. It was very easy to get the hummus to come together. Just make sure your completely process the chickpeas and tahini before you add the rest of the ingredients.
I made this hummus especially for my wife and she loved it - best she ever had! She thought it had more flavor than most of the flavorless hummus you find in the store. The texture was perfect - nice and creamy. She suggested I experiment with adding some diced roasted red bell peppers to the mix. I served the hummus with Tyler Florence's Pita Bread
Recipe Grade: A
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