The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Roasted garlic hummus

Hummus with carrotsThis easy and delicious hummus recipe makes enough to eat now and freeze several cups for later.

ChickpeasMark loves hummus, and I've been wanting to make him some for years.  The trouble is that it's impossible to find most of the ingredients locally.  We found a can of tahini five years ago (and I assumed it was still good --- it was), but our grocery store doesn't carry chickpeas.  When Mark saw some in the big city Sunday, he stocked up and I made a huge pot of hummus.

First, I soaked the chickpeas overnight and then cooked them for a few hours on the wood stove.  Meanwhile, I roasted a lot of garlic and then started passing the rest of the ingredients through the food processor to grind them up.

Meyer lemons(I'm zesting the lemons here simply because I never throw away the rind of a homegrown lemon.  I only used the juice, though.)

Once all of the ingredients are mixed together, add water until the hummus has the right consistency.  (I added some more water after taking the photo at the top of the page.)

Here's the important part --- wait a day before eating!  We tried some of the hummus right away and it was good, but the flavors really blend if you let your hummus sit in the fridge overnight.

We like to eat hummus on carrot sticks, but you'll probably have your preferred serving method.  Since this recipe makes about six cups, feel free to freeze some of it for later.  Enjoy!

Our chicken waterer keeps the flock from getting bored during long winter days.


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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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My brother-in-law's girlfriend introduced me to hummus. It's one of my favorite snacks that I don't have as often as I'd like. The local stores here don't carry chickpeas either, and the pre-made stuff is just too expensive for me to get regularly.
Comment by Edward Antrobus Sun Jan 29 12:09:19 2012
I have replaced chickpeas with kidney beans and have enjoyed the outcome. I will be trying your recipy as my husband likes hummus too.
Comment by Mona Sun Jan 29 12:25:18 2012

I'm so glad our Tiny Kroger stocks chickpeas. We eat them a lot.

Before my last trip to a big city (one with a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's), I checked for recipes for tahini. It's much cheaper to buy sesame seeds than it is to buy tahini, and I can make as much as I need for a batch of hummus and not worry about whether the $10 jar I bought two years ago is still any good.

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/dipsandsauces/r/tahinirecipe.htm

Don't be tempted to grow your own chickpeas. Or if you do plant some and are successful, please let us all know what you did! I planted some last year and it was a total waste of a perfectly good row. The hulls were paper-thin. Many of the beans were shriveled and hard as pebbles, but most of the hulls were empty!

Comment by Debbi Sun Jan 29 15:30:25 2012

Edward --- It's certainly delicious! I like to add it to the table to round out a light meal.

Mona --- Interesting to try kidney beans instead. I think if I was going to substitute, I might go for great northern (which is our other favorite bean.)

Debbi --- I didn't really have a way to get sesame seeds in large quantities either --- no way was I going to pay for the ones in the shaker in the spice department! But I do like the idea of starting with sesame seeds next time we find some. I'll have to keep my eyes open.

We've tried to grow both sesame seeds and chickpeas and completely struck out. I think they don't like our damp climate....

Comment by anna Sun Jan 29 16:08:23 2012
Pantry shop has them in bulk.
Comment by Errol Sun Jan 29 18:51:35 2012
Awesome! Want to get me some before you come up next time? I'll pay you back.... :-)
Comment by anna Sun Jan 29 19:54:21 2012
I skimmed this blog earlier today. It left some sort of subliminal message to me which just resulted in me eating a night snack of hummus and carrots. Serendipitously, I found myself looking again on here just now. Though my carrots and hummus weren't from scratch, I think you can believe you influenced me towards healthier eating. (I was going to have left over pizza.)
Comment by Maggie Sun Jan 29 22:38:59 2012
Food City in Wise and Weber City both have tahini in their International section. Haven't looked at St Paul or Coeburn.
Comment by Bob Mon Jan 30 07:21:21 2012
Also, peanut butter will work in a pinch.
Comment by Bob Mon Jan 30 07:25:04 2012

Maggie --- I'll have to put more pictures of vegetables on the blog. :-) Glad to be subliminally changing eating habits.

Bob --- You must be local! For some reason, we generally go the other two directions --- St. Paul for close stores and Abingdon for far away ones. But now that I know that Wise and Weber City have tahini, we'll have to stock up when we head that way!

Interesting idea to try peanut butter. I have to admit, I'm a bit scared --- it's such a strong taste already... :-)

Comment by anna Mon Jan 30 07:46:32 2012





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