vegan hummus is yummus

hummus is a dietary staple for me. i use it as dip, spread, salad dressing, topping, you name it. sometimes i just eat it by the spoonful. in the above picture, i spread it on cucumber slices, topped with carrot shavings and dusted with paprika. one of my favorite snacks is cucumber hummus slices with huge mounds of alfalfa sprouts on top.

ingredients:

2 heaping-ass tablespoons of raw sesame tahini
juice of one lemon
15oz can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans (“gonzo beans,” as i call them)
water
large clove or two of garlic, minced
olive oil
a ton of fresh italian parsley (the flat kind, not curly)
cumin
paprika
dill
salt

put the tahini, lemon juice and a couple tablespoons of water into a food processor or blender. mix them for a few minutes until you have a frothy liquid.

drain and rinse the gonzo beans, dump them in the machine and continue blending.

in a small pan, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil then add the minced garlic. shimmy it around into a single layer and cook only a minute or two, until the garlic just starts to golden. it wants to burn. don’t let it.

stop the machine and add the garlic and olive oil from the pan into the mixture. also add a whole bunch of fresh parsley leaves, stems removed (i use a handful, probably 1/4 cup worth. it’s hard to overdo the parsley.) add fresh dill too if you have it, otherwise use dried. add a teaspoon or two of cumin and paprika and a pinch of salt.

blend for another couple minutes, then do a taste test. add more of whatever you think it needs. if the mixture is a little dry, add more water. blend again. it should be very smooth and creamy, so don’t hesitate to add more water; this is hummus, not gonzo paste.

feel free to try substitutions and additions. olives are great in this; chop them up separately and add them in towards the end so they don’t get blended into smithereens. roasted red pepper? yeah! roasted eggplant? hell yeah! one time i added way too damn much raw garlic, and i didn’t want to open another can of gonzo beans, so to balance it out i put in a whole bunch of cucumber. it helped.