It's Too Darned Hot, So It's Time For Hummus

We are having one of those miserable early summer heatwaves, complete with a wild thunderstorm that brought JR to cower in our bed last night through a half hour of lightening flashes and torrential rain.

It's too hot to cook much. It's too hot to WANT cooked food, though air conditioning does make it possible.

Is anyone out there but me old enough to remember BEFORE air conditioning? We sweltered, we wore minimal clothing in the house, we had lots of fans and we ate lots of cold food.

 At my house that meant borscht, a yucky Russian/Jewish beet soup served cold, usually with cucumbers and sour cream (yogurt) that I STILL won't eat. It also meant tuna salads, cold cuts and deli salads of the sort my mother wouldn't allow in her house nowadays--too much fat and cholesterol!

My favorite hot weather meal was fresh berries with sour cream. Nowadays I settle for Greek yogurt--it's not sour cream, but it's healthier and I can eat with a clear conscience......

Since those days I have become acquainted with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean foods, and two have become staples in our house.

One is hummus (pronounced hum-muss, NOT hume-us), a  mashed chickpea dip. You can readily buy this in the store, but it is easy as pie to make at home. SC loves chickpeas and tonight she dined on hummus, a dish of unmashed chickpeas, pita bread and carrots. Healthy and light.

There are tons of hummus recipes. A really authentic one just uses chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans), lemon juice, garlic and tahini. That last ingredient is a sesame seed paste that you can buy in a jar or a can. It is sort of like peanut butter, and can be a bit gloppy. Buy it in a jar if possible--the canned type always seems to stick to the can.

Here's the basic recipe. Taste it as you make it and adjust the ingredients to your liking.  You can serve it with raw veggies of any kind. In addition to carrots, we especially like cucumbers with ours!

HUMMUS  (A Basic Recipe)

Drain: 2 15oz cans of chickpeas/garbanzos. Save the liquid from one of the cans!

Place chickpeas in a foodprocessor or blender. Add:

1/2 of the chickpea liquid

1/3 cup lemon juice (bottled is fine, fresh is always nicer)

6 Tbs tahini paste

3 cloves of garlic (we use chopped and we use a LOT more, though we do tone it down for company and SC!)

Process until smooth. Add extra chickpea liquid if needed.

Taste and add more tahini, lemon or garlic to suit your taste.

Serve with pita bread, other flatbread, or pita chips.

If you've tried one of my recipes and have a comment, you can always e-mail me your comments at librarylady61@comcast.net