What We Ate Wednesday--Homemade Hummus (Two Ways)

Hello lovelies! Hummus. It's a vegan's best friend. Pesto may be besto, but hummus is yummus.

I do sometimes indulge by buying it in the shop as I can't replicate the caramelised onion flavour. But mostly I make my own as it is HUGELY cheaper and you get more for your money and there is considerably less waste. None of those single serving plastic pots to throw away.

This is especially true in the US where decent hummus was running around $4.

I make a triple batch and freeze it. Did I mention you can freeze hummus? Well you can. This makes it easy to make a big amount in one go. Do once, eat for weeks. Use your freezer. That's my motto. I often have several flavours of hummus (and now jars of pesto!) in my freezer. Just defrost overnight in the fridge.

I also prefer to use butter beans rather than the traditional chickpeas. This is because I can get tins of butter beans for between 29p and 33p depending on where I shop. Also because I think they puree up smoother with less oil. In my opinion, chickpeas can be a bit grainy unless you process them for ages and add in extra oil. But use what you like.

I also love to store things in salsa jars. They are just about a one cup serving and freeze well. All my hummus and pesto is frozen in them.

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Basic Hummus Recipe (makes about 2.5 cups)

2 tins beans (3 cups) drained and rinsed
6 TB lemon juice (fresh is great, but bottled works too) 
2 TB tahini 
2-3 TB oil (start with 2 and see how it seems)
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder or a  clove of garlic (I am a huge garlic lover and this is plenty for me, but use as much as you want) 
1 tsp salt
water as needed to thin (a few TB should do it)

Bung everything in a food processor except the water and oil and blend until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides occasionally. Turn on your food processor and while it is running, stream in the oil through the chute and watch it go all creamy. If needed, add the water to thin it out or make it smoother and blend again until silky smooth. Divide into 3 containers and freeze 2.

Pimp your hummus: Add 1/4 cup olive tapenade to it if you happen to have some just lying about.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus (makes about 2 and 3/4 cups)

 2 tins beans (3 cups) drained and rinsed
6 TB lemon juice (fresh is great, but bottled works too)
2 TB tahini 
2  roasted red peppers (from a jar is fine) 
2-3 TB oil (start with 2 and see how it seems)
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder or a clove of garlic (I am a huge garlic lover and this is plenty for me, but use as much as you want) 
1 tsp salt
water as needed to thin (a few TB should do it)

Bung everything in a food processor except the water and blend until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides occasionally. Turn on your food processor and while it is running, stream in the oil through the chute and watch it go all creamy. If needed, add the water to thin it out or make it smoother and blend again until silky smooth.  Divide into 3 containers and freeze 2.

Next week I will show you some more ways that we eat hummus.