5-Minute Hummus!

I have long been a fan of Middle Eastern food, and I'm always on the lookout for a hummus recipe that is easy but still tastes authentic. I know: a tall order, right? Well, I've found it. This recipe for 5-Minute Hummus is adapted from the book Israeli Soul, by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook.

5-Minute Hummus

The first thing you'll do is make tehina sauce, which will then form the basis of your hummus.

In a food processor (necessary to make this smooth and silky) combine the following:

1-2 garlic cloves

Juice of a lemon

2 cups of tehina (sesame seed paste)

salt to taste (the original recipe calls for 1 tablespoon, but I prefer to use less)

1 tsp ground cumin

Process for 1-2 minutes until the mixture resembles peanut butter, then stream in

1 to 1 1/2 cups ice water

until desired consistency is achieved.

At this point, you have a choice to make. If you are following the recipe in the book, you can add 2 cans (15 ounces each) of drained and rinsed chickpeas, then blend for 3-4 more minutes, scraping down the sides, until the mixture is smooth and a uniform colour. The result is approximately 4 cups of hummus.

Or, if you're me...

You want the best of both worlds. You want to use that tehina sauce and still get some hummus out of the bargain. If you're like me, you'll split the recipe in half, add 1 can of chickpeas to half of the tehina sauce. I topped my hummus with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of smoked paprika. Delicious.

(Excuse the weird shadow on the bottom of this photo. I'm 5-foot-nothing on a good day and overhead shots are a bit of a challenge when I don't set up my tripod -- or have my 6-foot-4 hubby take the pic for me)

Note: I can tell you from my experience that it's very important that you blend the ingredients for several minutes if you want that ultra-creamy texture (and believe me, you do. It's sublime.)

You can use the tehina (tahini) sauce for a multitude of things: as a salad dressing drizzled over cooked veggies, as a dip, as a spread on toast ... the list goes on and on. See why I didn't want to forgo all of those yummy opportunities by turning the entire batch of sauce into hummus? (Don't get me wrong, this recipe makes crazy good hummus, but options. I like options.) And because tend to think that if some is good, more must be better, I used both the tehina sauce and the hummus on a falafel sandwich for lunch. Take my advice and do the same. (There's a whole chapter on falafel in Israeli Soul).

If you love Middle Eastern food but have been intimidated to tackle making it at home, I highly recommend the book Israeli Soul. There are recipes for everything you could want here, including falafel, shawarma, breads, schnitzel (including a vegetarian version!), sides, condiments, soups, salads, drinks, desserts, and more! I can already tell this is going to be one of my favourite go-to books; there are so many recipes I want to try!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The book mentioned in this post was generously provided to me for review by Raincoast Books. All opinions are my own.

#Recipe #Cookbook #Review #BookReview #RaincoastBooks