In Beijing, foods like hummus can be found at foreign markets but it is super
expensive, so making your own hummus is definitely the way to go, seeing as you
can buy a can of chickpeas for 8 kuai (just over 1 us dollar – kuai is the slang for
yuan/rmb). But it is one of those things that is worth skipping store bought
anywhere I think! This hummus is very smooth, creamy
and delicious. The trick is peeling the chickpeas and lots of Tahini.
Hummus ingredients:
Hummus ingredients:
5 tablespoons tahini paste
1 large clove of garlic
Lemon juice of half a lemon (or to taste)
Salt
Reserved chickpea water
Drain the chickpeas out of the can and save the water.
Now you want to remove the thin outer shell of the chick peas – it’s a
bit labor intensive but very easy! Gently squeeze the
chickpea with your index and thumb and the shell pops right off. I did this while watching Community so it didn't feel tedious at all.
After they are all shelled, put them in a food processor and grind until it's coarsely ground up - scraping down the sides as you go along.
Add the Tahini paste, garlic, salt and lemon juice and blend again. Careful
with the salt as the chickpea water may be a bit salty,
depending on the chickpeas you buy.
Now add half the chickpea water and blend. It'll become much more
easy to blend and you’ll start seeing the consistency, add the rest if needed and blend so it's blissfully smooth. Add more salt or lemon to taste.
Transfer to bowl or container and chill in the fridge for at least a few hours to let all the flavors come
together. Serve drizzled with a generous amount of olive oil.
Homemade pita chips
- Buy some good pita bread and slice in half (like you are going to make a pita sandwich) so you have two evenly
thin slices. A lot of pita bread is already sliced; mine was very unevenly sliced, which was ok but the thicker bits are harder to crisp up. Then cut into chip sized/hummus
dipping pieces.
- Drizzle olive oil in a pan and spread the pita chips flat over medium
heat.
- As they start to crisp up, move them around the pan so they don't burn.
(for thicker pieces I also used a spatula to press them down so they would
toast more thoroughly)
- Sprinkle with sea salt and toss in the pan to finish.
You can also throw in black pepper or rosemary or chili flakes to make a
more seasoned chip; get creative!
Go get hummus happy! xo
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