Thursday, April 30, 2009

A Tasty Twist to Hummus

We have a place in town run by a 1st generation Lebanese family. The husband and I go there for lunch every so often and if you are not there at just the right time, you will end up waiting a long time for a table. They have a little counter with about 5 stools and about 8 tables. It is a tiny place filled with wonderful aromas. Their hummus is, by far, the best I have ever had. Everything in this restaurant is home made...their flat bread...OMG. Most of the time I have a large order of hummus. I eat part of it for lunch and share the rest with my hubby. His favorite is the peas and rice or kidney beans and rice. YUM...I am drooling on the keyboard just thinking about the food. In the summer, they make koosa, which is a small green summer squash that is stuffed with ground lamb, rice and spices. These are tricky to hollow out and you need the right tool to do that. But it is sooooooooo good! Anyway, back to the hummus. I have had the store bought hummus and well, it just doesn't have the same taste and consistency as the homemade kind. Do I buy it? Sure. In a pinch it has to do. But we do make our own once in awhile. This is a twist on plain hummus and adds some sweet sundried tomatoes to the mix. I like using the ones packed in oil as they add more flavor. This is a great appetizer and I just set out some flat bread to use as dippers. This is a healthy appetizer and can also be used as a spread on sandwiches!

Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus

INGREDIENTS·
1 16 ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed·
1 cup of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained (or rehydrated dried sun-dried tomatoes)·
1/2 cup (1 large bunch) fresh parsley, washed and picked·
2 tablespoons lemon juice·
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped·
1 heaping tablespoon tahini·
salt and crushed red pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
1. Place garbanzo beans and sun-dried tomatoes in a food processor and blend into a paste. You may have to scrape down the sides of the food process and add lemon juice to keep the mixture moving. Mix in lemon juice, garlic, tahini, salt and crushed red pepper. Blend until smooth, using more lemon juice if consistency is too thick. Transfer to medium sized bowl.
2. Coarsely chop the parsley leaves. Fold the parsley into the hummus, reserving some of the parsley to sprinkle on top for garnish.

3 comments:

  1. What a goober I am. For all the hummus I've ever eaten, it never occurred to me that I could make it at home.

    I shall certainly save this recipe to try!

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  2. Sounds delicious. I love hummus that has been flavored like this!

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  3. Hummus!! Love it so much! I only recently started making it at home. It's really very easy. Your version here with the sun dried tomato sounds extremely tempting and tasty!

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