Gonna Have To Face It - I'm Addicted To Hummus!

When trying to decide what recipe to make for my big debut as a blogger, several ideas when through my head - dessert, soup (one of my favorite things to make), martini (we'll save that for the next time Abbi asks me to fill in for her) or hummus - yes, hummus!  We love hummus at the Fegley house and it is ALWAYS in the refrigerator.  Brent used to buy his hummus - blah!  I could make it and it would be healthier (less sodium), less expensive and of course, taste better.  We mix it up sometimes and make it with olives or sprouts, by my favorite is roasted red pepper hummus.  In Bethesda we had lovely neighbors from Jordan; Nadine told me to throw away my hummus recipe, she would teach me how to make hummus.  I went over her apartment one day and we made hummus by taste - tasting along the way to make sure it how we wanted it.  Her mother suggested, okay... she insisted, that it was best to start with dried beans, that you soak and boil to ready them.  Readying the garbanzo beans is a bit of a pain but worth it because of all the sodium added to canned beans, which you want to avoid.  Soak the dried beans overnight in water, then boil for at least an hour to soften - I use a cock pot and put them on at least 1/2 a day.

Now some people like their hummus smooth (that would be me) and some people like it a bit chunky - but when you make it yourself you can have it however you wish.  Remember to add small amounts of liquid as you go - you can always add more, but you can't take it out and nobody likes hummus that runs off your pretzel, cracker, pita or whatever else you choose to eat it with.

I actually wrote the recipe down while I was making it - but really feel free to make it your own.

1/4 cup tahini

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 cups prepared garbanzo beans (either from a can or soaked and boiled)

2 cloves of peeled garlic - more if you like garlic

1/4 of a 16 oz. jar of roasted red peppers

dash of cayenne pepper

coarse ground pepper to taste

pinch of salt

Save some of the water you used to boil the garbanzo beans - add sparely to thin out the hummus as you make it.

Mix all the ingredients in a blender or food processor to the texture you like it - easy as that!

We love to eat this with Snyder's Onion and Pumpernickel pretzels or on a sandwich with sprouts and tomatoes.

Side note:  In our family we call garbanzo beans, butt beans - they do look like little butts, don't they?