Roasted Garlic Hummus

Hey everyone.. snack-time. I don't know why it took so long, but it was only recently that we got a taste of hummus at a party somewhere. And I'm glad for this discovery..

 

Fig. 1. Roasted Garlic Hummus

Hummus is one of the the most diverse chutneys or dips out there. It's tasty, it's filling, it goes with any bread, chips or salad-veggies like a dip. It doubles up as a great sandwich spread. And the best part is that it is reasonably healthy. Has a lot of protein from the chick-peas. And the olive oil makes it healthy and flavorful. So the last few weeks we have been buying a tub of hummus every time we do groceries. Hummus with pita is a far better alternative to chips for a snack.

I figured if we are going to consume it so frequently I should look into the recipe. It turns out that hummus needs only a few primary ingredients. Everything else is just variations on the base. Cooked chick-peas, olive oil, sesame seeds (or tahini), salt and lemon juice or vinegar. Grind them all up and you have hummus. The variations could be adding all sorts of spices to this.

The hummus I have made here today has turned out so delicious that I will definitely be making this very frequently at home adding variations every time. Honestly, if you have the ingredients and a mixer then hummus is so easy to make, a caveman could.. uhmm.. let's just say it's easy.

I roughly followed the recipe on One Hot Stove. It's nice and simple and uses roasted garlic, red chillies and cumin seeds for flavor. I don't have tahini. And I am averse to buying items which are unlikely to be used in multiple dishes. So I just ground some sesame seeds to make a paste following this suggestion on the About website. That worked really great for me. Also, I don't have olive oil presently. But I do have an "olive oil vinaigrette" that served as a good substitute for olive oil + lemon juice.

Ingredients:
Chick peas - 1 can of cooked chick peas (about 1 & 1/2 cup) washed, drained.
Sesame seeds ~ 3 tablespoons
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Red chilly flakes - 1 teaspoon
Garlic ~ 3 humongous cloves of the big bulk garlic, peeled and sliced long
Olive oil ~ 4 table spoons (can vary as per taste)
Lemon/lime juice ~ 1 table spoon
(I used about 4 table spoons of olive oil vinaigrette instead of olive oil + lemon juice. Note that the vinaigrette is tangy. So keep that in mind if playing with the consistency while using vinaigrette instead of olive oil.)

Procedure
1) Roast the sesame seeds separately. Then roast red chillies, cumin seeds and garlic cloves. (If you are a food-blogger or simply like your dish to look pretty.. remove a tiny bit of roasted garlic and chilly flakes  for garnish.)
2) Grind sesame seeds into a paste. Then add the red chillies, cumin seeds, garlic cloves, chick peas, olive oil, lemon juice and salt to the above paste. Grind all into a reasonably smooth paste. Add a tiny bit of water if necessary to get the desired consistency.

That's it! You are done and the hummus is ready! Pour into a serving (or storage) dish and garnish!

Incidentally just a few minutes ago I  noticed a post at 365 days of Eating where Cooking Foodie has made Hummus with a variation of adding oven roasted red bell pepper. Can try that too next time.

If you are using canned chickpeas like me, there is nothing faster than running the ingredients through a mixer. So this post also goes to "Twenty -20 Cooking," where Niloufer is collecting dishes that can be prepared in 20 minutes.

Cheers and thanks for reading!