It’s easy to buy hummus in a store, but it’s almost as easy to make it, and much more fun. This is a call to action; stop buying hummus!

All it takes to make are chickpeas, lemon juice, olive oil, tahini and garlic. Plus, add sun-dried tomatoes and you have sun dried tomato hummus. We use fresh cilantro or parsley as a topping, with a few roasted pine nuts, and you got yourself a really affordable and amazing appetizer dip. Naturally, we will be using some of this on our upcoming sandwiches :-).

Hummus Recipe

• 1 12-oz can chick peas
• 3 tbs tahini
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil + 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs – 1/4 cup water
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbs sundried tomato (in oil)
• 2 tbs fresh chopped basil leaves
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 2 tbs chopped parsley leaves
• paprika

Open the can of chick peas and drain the liquid thoroughly. It’s also a good idea to rinse the peas to get rid of that film of the liquid that tends to remain. Place the peas in the bowl of a food processor. Add the tahini, garlic, 1/4 cup olive oil, lemon juice, salt, sundried tomato and basil leaves.  Pulse until the chick peas are minced. Start drizzling water starting with the 2 tbs and continuing until you achieve a consistency that works for you.  I know this seems a bit ambiguous but I’ve found that different brands of peas have varying water content and so while some peas require the full 1/4 cup, others will be incredibly runny with even as little as 2 tbs of water.  You want the hummus to be about as thick as yogurt (but with a more granular texture).

Now that you have the hummus ready, you can work on the topping.  Heat a medium skillet on medium-high heat.  Add the pine nuts and toss periodically until all sides are golden brown.  Chop the parsley leaves.  Pour the hummus into a large bowl. Top with the 2 remaining tbs of olive oil, sprinkle some paprika, and then add the parsley and pine nuts.

Add the garlic to a food processor, and pulse it a few times until the garlic are cut into fine pieces. Add the chickpeas, tahini, half the lemon juice, half the olive oil and let the food processor run until it’s all a mush. Now, start adding the olive oil and lemon juice little by little, and stop to taste the hummus. Depending on your brand of chickpeas, the hummus may be more or less watery, so be careful not to make it too ‘wet’ by adding all the olive oil at once. The lemon juice changes the taste dramatically, so stop adding that when the hummus agrees with your tastebuds. When it’s good, add the sun dried tomatoes, and run the food processor again until they are blended in. You can’t really overrun the food processor, and it will need to go for a minute or two at full speed.

Tip: If the hummus is too dry, add more olive oil. If the hummus is too wet, add more chickpeas (and adjust with lemon juice and tahini if needed). If the hummus is too sour, add more chickpeas, olive oil and tahini, but not lemon juice. You get the idea…