Hummus

This hummus is particularly creamy. It’s such an easy nutrient dense food, that I’ll happily eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner. For this hummus whether you use cooked chickpeas or canned chickpeas, you still cook them again for 10-20 minutes with bicarb soda to make them really soft & mushy. This will give you a really creamy hummus. More on cooking & storing big batches of chickpeas here.

For a loaded hummus, pile Matchuba on top. Recipe for that can be found here.

Chickpeas contain good amounts of molybdenum, manganese, iron, magnesium & zinc as well as fibre. Fibre is the indigestible parts of plant foods, such as vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, legumes, nuts & seeds. Fibre keeps our digestive systems healthy & our microbiome diverse. When our digestive system is healthy it supports the other systems in our body, including the cardiovascular system, the nervous system & detoxification pathways. In addition, a diet that has adequate fibre is protective against diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and bowel cancer.

Tahini, made from sesame seeds contains good amounts of iron, calcium, zinc, copper & magnesium making them an excellent food to include regularly for vegetarians.

Makes about 3 ½ cups

Ingredients

385 g cooked chickpeas

1 tsp bicarb soda

½ cup lemon juice

1 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar

1 medium clove of garlic, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon fine sea salt, more to taste

¾ cup tahini

1 ½ tsp raw honey

2 tsp of dried onion flakes

1 tsp garlic flakes

½ cup ice water

Any of the following toppings : drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle of sumac ,paprika, chopped fresh parsley, pine nuts or matchuba.

Instructions

Place the chickpeas in a medium saucepan and add the bicarb soda. Cover the chickpeas with water, then bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat for 10-20 minutes, or until the chickpeas are mushy. In a fine-mesh strainer, drain the chickpeas and run cool water over them for about 30-60 seconds. Set aside.

Crush the garlic and with some salt and leave for 10 minutes as this increases the allicin (active part that’s good for you) content of the garlic.

Add all the ingredients apart from the water & toppings to the food processor and blend until the mixture is thick and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides and bottom of the processor if necessary.

Slowly add ¼ cup of the ice water. Add more if necessary.

Taste, and adjust i.e., more lemon juice or salt.

Serve in a bowl or platter, with toppings of choice. Alternatively, store hummus in a glass jar in the refrigerator, for up to 5 days.