What We Ate Wednesday--Posh Salted Caramel Truffles

Before I begin this week I would like to ask you a favour. If you are a reader of What We Ate Wednesday and would like to support me, would you consider backing my kickstarter campaign to help me publish my book of retellings of traditional tales through a feminist lens? Please go to the link below and see what it is about. I am grateful for your support. Thanks.
WOUNDS: NEW OPENINGS INTO OLD STORIES

Hello lovelies! This week I thought I would share with you the dessert we've been having for the last few weeks. These posh truffles are ridiculously easy to make and taste like a million bucks. Or pounds. Or euro. Or currency of your choice. 

I got the idea from a cookbook I got from our local library called Bliss Bites by Kate Bradley. She called them Date Night Truffles, but we have enjoyed them every night. Maybe every night is date night for us. 

The one thing you do need is really good dates. Soft ones. Squidgy ones. Not dry ones. Blended recipes can get by with cheap, dry dates you soaked but these need to be the real deal. Our local Tesco has started carrying an 800g box of big, soft dates for £3 which is what started this off. 

You also need flaked sea salt...if you can get smoked sea salt like we can then use that. But any old flaky salt will do. 

Posh Salted Caramel Truffles

Line a pan with parchment paper.

100g dark chocolate bar, melted

1 dozen big soft pitted dates --if some dates are medium not big then you might can get up to 14 dates

peanut butter or nut butter of your choice (almond butter would be amazing) 

flaked sea salt

1.In a double boiler (basically a glass bowl sat atop a pan with an inch or two of simmering water) or the microwave carefully melt the chocolate. If microwaving, check every 30 seconds and stir to prevent scorching. When melted remove from heat.

2. Meanwhile while chocolate is melting carefully pit the dates but try not to cut them in two, just slit them and pop the pit out.It should be like having a hinge on the back side, if that makes sense. If you accidentally cut through don't worry about. 

3. Fill each date with about a half teaspoon peanut butter and then close it up with most of the peanut butter inside the date. If you accidentally cut a date in half, then just put the other half back on top of the peanut butter like a hat. 

4. With a spoon drop each date into the melted chocolate and roll it around to coat it on all sides.  Then carefully put it on the parchment paper and sprinkle with a little smoked sea salt while the chocolate is still warm so it will stick. I tend to do three chocolate covered dates, then salt, three more dates, then salt. You get the idea. 

When all are done, pop in the fridge to harden up. When the chocolate is hardened then peel them up from the parchment and store in an airtight container in the fridge. 

These truffles are delicious. You get the gooey peanut butter filling, surrounded by the caramel layer from the date, enveloped in a sweet chocolate shell and contrasted with the flaky sea salt. With all those adjectives, I sound like an M&S advert, but it's true. 

Fairy Tale Friday--The Most Obedient Servant (Cricket Magazine, 1996)

Before I begin this week I would like to ask you a favour. If you are a reader of Fairy Tale Friday and enjoy it, would you consider backing my kickstarter campaign to help me publish my book of retellings of traditional tales through a feminist lens? Please go to the link below and see what it is about. I am grateful for your support. Thanks.
WOUNDS: NEW OPENINGS INTO OLD STORIES

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

This week we look at an unusual tale in that the gender roles are reversed. I found this story in the March 1996 issue of Cricket Magazine for Children. Like many of its counterparts, our hero’s abusers are lazy, rude and selfish and it is the opposite qualities which set our protagonist apart that make them marriage material. This version is entitled The Most Obedient Servant retold by Anna Salyers Miller and illustrated by Deborah Nourse Lattimore.

Sadly, in so many of the female versions (basically every other one) our heroine is admired by the prince for her beauty and her grace and perhaps her quiet self-effacing attitude. We have seen heroines who are passive and wait for a magical helper to solve their problems get chosen by the prince. We have seen heroines who displayed some spunk and ingenuity to make their dreams come true get chosen by the prince. But the prince never knew what lengths she had gone to get there. He just saw her pretty face and her fancy dress and her shy demeanour (so shy she won’t even tell him her name!) and that’s why he wanted her. Which makes me really sad.

This version has a loyal servant who is everything his two masters are not. He is kind and caring. He is studious and wise. He is loyal. The two brothers and their mother are the male equivalent of the wicked stepmother and ugly stepsisters, treating him badly after his father dies. In some of our tales our heroine wants to go to the ball, in other tales she wants to go to church. In every one of these tales, she needs new clothes to do it. She has to look to good to catch the prince’s eye. In this tale, a decree goes out that all unmarried men must come and take an examination to see who is best suited to become a high ranking government official and marry the king’s only daughter and someday rule the land. The spouse of the royal person is not chosen by their looks but by their intellect. This also makes me sad that so few of the female protagonist tales mention her intellect at all.

As you would expect, the two lazy masters don’t study at all. They tell their stepbrother the servant to study for them and fill them in later about what he has learned. Moonhi, being a very obedient servant, obeys. When they all go to the palace for the exam (Moonhi is there to do the cooking and the cleaning) they happen upon an old man. The man is hungry and so Moonhi shares his rice. The man is injured so Moonhi makes a poultice for the old man’s hand. The old man is so impressed that he encourages Moonhi to sit the exam which, being an obedient servant, he does. And what do you know—the old man was the king and he sees the true worth of our protagonist by his actions, in spite of his social class. In the female versions, we nearly always see the prince not care that her background was once humble or that she is dirty and wears rags because she scrubs up well. But here it is Moonhi’s actions and not his looks (although the story describes him as handsome) that make him a suitable mate.

The story itself is so beautifully rendered in Cricket magazine that I asked my husband the Amazing Spiderman to scan it for me. You will need to click on them to enlarge to read. 

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week as we start to look at the other variation of Cinderella with a more incestuous edge.

What We Ate Wednesday--Pea and Pesto Soup

Hello lovelies! This another one of those really-quick-when-you-are-tired-after-work sort of meals where you need something quick and nourishing. It comes together even quicker if you have made several batches of BESTO PESTO in advance and can just defrost one in your fridge the day before you plan to cook with it.

I made this with some spinach and walnut (with extra garlic) pesto from my freezer and it was done in about 25 minutes.

A word of warning....when I was researching Pea and Pesto Soup recipes many called for just 4 tablespoons of pesto for a huge batch of soup. Nah uh. Not me. No way. I used a full cup of pesto for an intense mmmmm factor.

I based my recipe around this one from VIBRANT PLATE but added the pesto. I chose her recipe because it added a potato which gave it a bit more oomph.

Pea and Pesto Soup
First make your spinach and walnut pesto. Recipe is {HERE} Or just defrost one you made earlier in your fridge the day before you want it.

You need:
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 large potato (about the size of a man's fist)diced
300g (2 cups) frozen peas, defrosted 
700ml (about 3 cups) hot vegetable stock
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large pot saute the onion and the garlic in a splash of oil or water until softened. Add the potato and the defrosted peas and the hot vegetable stock and bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are soft (about 12-15 minutes)
2. When potatoes are soft, add your pesto and transfer the whole lot to a blender and puree until smooth. This is one recipe that needs to be smooth...my immersion (stick) blender just does not cut it. Put the pureed green soup back in the pan and add the juice of half a lemon and salt and pepper to taste. Reheat to piping hot and serve.

That's it. Really easy. Really quick. Made 4 big bowls and was really delicious.

Fairy Tale Friday--Tattercoats (England, 1893)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

This week we look at a tale entitled Tattercoats which was collected by Joseph Jacobs. Jacobs was a prolific collector of tales and popularised some of the world’s bet known English fairy tales such as Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs. He not only collected English fairy tales, but also collected Jewish, Celtic and Indian fairy tales which made him one of the most popular writers of fairy tales and an expert of English folklore. We have already seen some of his retellings of Cinderella with Cap O' Rushes, Rushen Coatie and The Cinder Maid.

 I was lucky enough to find a combined copy of Jacob’s  English Fairy Tales (1890) and More English Fairy Tales (1893) at Carmarthen Free Books. 

This is an interesting tale as it features elements of Aarne-Thompson Uther 510B—persecuted heroine but without the bit about father wanting to marry her. It also features a neglectful grandfather rather than a stepmother, which makes a nice change. Tattercoats is an orphan whose mother died in childbirth and whose father is not mentioned. The tale is interesting in that the reason she is hated and neglected by her grandfather is that his favourite daughter died in childbirth and he cannot forgive her for that. In other versions such as the Meat Loves Salt variant of this tale we see the father learn the errors of his ways and embrace the daughter he turned his back on, but not here. At the royal wedding he leaves because he cannot bear to look at his granddaughter. 

It also contains a few elements of one of my favourite fairy tales The Goose Girl. In Tattercoats, she spends her days in the fields with the gooseherd boy dancing to his sweet piping amongst the geese. The Gooseherd is her magical helper, not by changing her clothes from rags to beautiful gowns but by playing his pipe and encouraging her to dance barefoot in the street on the way to the palace where she is seen by the Prince. At the end the gooseherd is never seen again, and the story says, “no one knew what became of him.” Was he really magical or was he just a boy with a flock of geese?

The character of the grandfather reminded me of Mrs Havisham from Dickens' Great Expectations slowly going mad in his own house. The story says:

So he turned his back, and sat by his window looking out over the sea, and weeping great tears for his lost daughter, till his white hair and beard grew down over his shoulders and twined round his chair and crept into the chinks of the floor, and his tears, dropping on to the window-ledge, wore a channel through the stone, and ran away in a little river to the great sea.

Arthur Rackham

Tattercoats source

IN a great palace by the sea there once dwelt a very rich old lord, who had neither wife nor children living, only one little granddaughter, whose face he had never seen in all her life. He hated her bitterly, because at her birth his favourite daughter died; and when the old nurse brought him the baby, he swore, that it might live or die as it liked, but he would never look on its face as long as it lived.

So he turned his back, and sat by his window looking out over the sea, and weeping great tears for his lost daughter, till his white hair and beard grew down over his shoulders and twined round his chair and crept into the chinks of the floor, and his tears, dropping on to the window-ledge, wore a channel through the stone, and ran away in a little river to the great sea. And, meanwhile, his granddaughter grew up with no one to care for her, or clothe her; only the old nurse, when no one was by, would sometimes give her a dish of scraps from the kitchen, or a torn petticoat from the rag-bag; while the other servants of the palace would drive her from the house with blows and mocking words, calling her 'Tattercoats', and pointing at her bare feet and shoulders, till she ran away crying, to hide among the bushes.

And so she grew up, with little to eat or wear, spending her days in the fields and lanes, with only the gooseherd for a companion, who would play to her so merrily on his little pipe, when she was hungry, or cold, or tired, that she forgot all her troubles, and fell to dancing, with his flock of noisy geese for partners.

But, one day, people told each other that the king was travelling through the land, and in the town nearby was to give a great ball, to all the lords and ladies of the country, when the prince, his only son, was to choose a wife.

One of the royal invitations was brought to the palace by the sea, and the servants carried it up to the old lord, who still sat by his window, wrapped in his long white hair and weeping into the little river that was fed by his tears.

But when he heard the king's command, he dried his eyes and bade them bring shears to cut him loose, for his hair had bound him a fast prisoner and he could not move. And then he sent them for rich clothes, and jewels, which he put on; and he ordered them to saddle the white horse, with gold and silk, that he might ride to meet the king.

Meanwhile Tattercoats had heard of the great doings in the town, and she sat by the kitchen door weeping because she could not go to see them. And when the old nurse heard her crying she went to the lord of the palace, and begged him to take his granddaughter with him to the king's ball.

But he only frowned and told her to be silent, while the servants laughed and said:

'Tattercoats is happy in her rags, playing with the gooseherd, let her be -- it is all she is fit for.'

A second, and then a third time, the old nurse begged him to let the girl go with him, but she was answered only by black looks and fierce words, till she was driven from the room by the jeering 

servants, with blows and mocking words.

Weeping over her ill success, the old nurse went to look for Tattercoats; but the girl had been turned from the door by the cook, and had run away to tell her friend the gooseherd how unhappy she was because she could not go to the king's ball.

But when the gooseherd had listened to her story, he bade her cheer up, and proposed that they should go together into the town to see the king, and all the fine things; and when she looked sorrowfully down at her rags and bare feet, he played a note or two upon his pipe, so gay and merry that she forgot all about her tears and her troubles, and before she well knew, the herdboy had taken her by the hand, and she, and he, and the geese before them, were dancing down the road towards the town.

Before they had gone very far, a handsome young man, splendidly dressed, rode up and stopped to ask the way to the castle where the king was staying; and when he found that they, too, were going thither, he got off his horse and walked beside them along the road.

The herdboy pulled out his pipe and played a low sweet tune, and the stranger looked again and again at Tattercoats's lovely face till he fell deeply in love with her and begged her to marry him.

But she only laughed and shook her golden head.

'You would be finely put to shame if you had a goosegirl for your wife!' said she; 'go and ask one of the great ladies you will see tonight at the king's ball, and do not flout poor Tattercoats.'

But the more she refused him the sweeter the pipe played, and the deeper the young man fell in love; till at last he begged her, as a proof of his sincerity, to come that night at twelve to the king's ball, just as she was, with the herdboy and his geese, and in her torn petticoat and bare feet, and he would dance with her before the king and the lords and ladies, and present her to them all, as his dear and honoured bride.

So when night came, and the hall in the castle was full of light and music, and the lords and ladies were dancing before the king, just as the clock struck twelve, Tattercoats and the herdboy, followed by his flock of noisy geese, entered at the great doors, and walked straight up the ballroom, while on either side the ladies whispered, the lords laughed, and the king seated at the far end stared in 

amazement.

But as they came in front of the throne, Tattercoats's lover rose from beside the king, and came to meet her. Taking her by the hand, he kissed her thrice before them all, and turned to the king.

'Father!' he said, for it was the prince himself, 'I have made my choice, and here is my bride, the loveliest girl in all the land, and the sweetest as well!'

Before he had finished speaking, the herdboy put his pipe to his lips and played a few low notes that sounded like a bird singing far off in the woods; and as he played, Tattercoats's rags were changed to shining robes sewn with glittering jewels, a golden crown lay upon her golden hair, and the flock of geese behind her became a crowd of dainty pages, bearing her long train.

And as the king rose to greet her as his daughter, the trumpets sounded loudly in honour of the new princess, and the people outside in the street said to each other:

'Ah! now the prince has chosen for his wife the loveliest girl in all the land!'

But the gooseherd was never seen again, and no one knew what became of him; while the old lord went home once more to his palace by the sea, for he could not stay at court, when he had sworn never to look on his granddaughter's face.

So there he still sits by his window, if you could only see him, as you some day may, weeping more bitterly than ever, as he looks out over the sea.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for a gender reversal of this traditional tale. 

What We Ate Wednesday--Olive Tapenade Pasta with Kale and Roasted Tomatoes

Hello lovelies! This is another quick but delicious meal that we have been eating on a Saturday night after we both get home late from work. It comes together in a snap (especially so if you have made your olive tapenade ahead of time) and tastes gorgeous.

If you can't remember how to make the olive tapenade then click {HERE}. I make a huge batch and freeze it, so all I have to do is defrost it overnight in my fridge when I plan to use for the next day. 

This is so delicious and has a real umami savoury quality. The roasted tomatoes add vibrant colour and sweetness and really compliment the salty olives and cheesy sprinkles. Plus you get a serving of kale. What's not to love?

Olive Tapenade Pasta with Kale and Roasted Tomatoes

Move your oven rack to the highest place and turn on your grill or broiler. I set my temperature at 220 degrees C/425F.

You need:

1 cup olive tapenade

100 grams of kale, destemmed and torn into small bites (about 4 cups?) 

juice of half a lemon

6 TB nutritional yeast flakes

(GF) pasta for two 

1. Make your olive tapenade. Or be like me and have some already made that you defrosted. Click {HERE} to remind you how to make it.

2. Tear up your kale

3. Juice half a lemon

4. Boil your (GF) pasta according to package directions. I used 2 cups of dry pasta for 2 people. 

Meanwhile roast your tomatoes:

Punnet cherry tomatoes (250g)
Slice in halves or quarters and drizzle with
1 TB olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
generous salt and pepper

Arrange cut side up in a roasting pan.
Roast 15 minutes under the grill until collapsed and slightly blackened.

1.When your pasta is boiling and the tomatoes are roasting, cook your kale with a splash of water in a large pot until bright green and reduced. Add the olive tapenade, the nutritional yeast flakes and the lemon and stir until heated through. 

2.When the pasta is ready, drain it in a colander and add it to the kale and olive mixture. Divide the mixture into two bowls and top with the roasted tomatoes. 

 That's literally it. It doesn't even feel like a recipe. And it comes together in a snap when you are tired, but want something healthy. 

Fairy Tale Friday--Cinder-Girl (Wales, 1923)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

This week we look at a tale from Wales. I came across this book at our public library entitled Welsh Folk Tales by Peter Stevenson a few years ago. Recently, we got a copy in at the bookshop where I work and a re-read of it reminded me there was a most unusual Cinderella version in it.

The introduction states that there was a welsh gypsy storyteller by the name of Ellen Woods of Gogerddan who was said to be a witch who was paid to curse enemies, bewitch animals, tell fortunes and make love potions. She passed her tales onto her grandson the fiddler and storyteller Matthew Wood. John Sampson who was a librarian at Liverpool University translated these tales from Romani to English for the Gypsy Lore Society after meeting Matthew in 1896. The story of Cinder-Girl the Little Slut was published in 1923.

This tale follows the traditional storyline we have come to expect in these tales up to a point. Girl is persecuted by her sisters, girl is made to dress in rags and can’t go to church, a magical helper appears (an old beggar woman) who grants her a wish, a shoe is lost and found, and wedding takes place. Where it becomes unusual is after the royal marriage and the birth of her children. Still jealous, the eldest sister replaces our heroine’s babies with ugly dogs and her husband has her declared a witch and tries to burn her at the stake. The old beggar woman reappears and turns her into a wild pig and she runs off into the forest. Here she becomes the magical helper for her own children who are being raised by the eldest sister.  She is eventually murdered by her husband’s huntsman but her brave Firstborn Girl retrieves a piece of her mother’s liver from her corpse hanging outside the city gates and uses it to make a wish that brings her family back together. Now that is an unusual tale. It is also told in a very engaging style. The book credits the Society for Storytelling and you can see why—this would make a cracking oral story. It also wins the award for most commas in a list. As you read it, see if I’m wrong about this.

source

Cinder-Girl

A small house, three sisters. The two older sisters thought themselves grand ladies, but they were ashamed of their grimy youngest sister, so they hid her amongst the cinders in the coal-hole where no one could see her. If anyone came to call they said, “Hide yourself, little slut.”

One Sunday, the two sisters came home from church all a-flutter about a handsome prince they had seen. Cinder-girl asked if she might be allowed to go to church and see the prince? “No, grimy little pig,” they said, “go and hide with the coal.”

Next Sunday, the two sisters went to church, leaving the Cinder-girl alone. An old beggar woman came to the door. Cinder-girl invited her in and gave her tea and cake. The old woman took the grimy girl by the land and led her outside. She gave her a white pebble and said, “Throw it against that rock, you will see a door, go inside, there will be a bed chamber, take off your grimy clothes, put on a fine dress, and a pair of golden slippers, go outside, you will see a pony, ride to the church, sit by the door, the prince will see you, then hurry home, put on your grimy clothes and say nothing.” And the old beggar woman disappeared, as they do in fairy tales.

Cinder-girl did as she was told, and everything happened the way the old woman said. Later that morning, a fine lady in golden slippers entered the church. The prince asked who she was, but no one knew. This went on for three weeks. On the third Sunday the beggar woman came again and told the Cinder-girl, “This day, leave early, the prince will follow, a slipper will fall from your foot and he will find it.”

Cinder-girl did as she was told and as she ran home a slipper fell from her foot. The prince followed and found the golden slipper. He held a banquet and invited every maiden in the land to attend. They came, rich and poor, fair and dark, scrubbed and grimy. Each lady tried on the slipper, in they came, out they went, and it fitted none. Eldest sister chopped off a piece of her foot and it still didn’t fit, and oh, there was blood and mess. The prince called for the serving maids, until there was only one girl left. Cinder-girl held out her foot. The slipper fitted, the prince wiped away the grime and recognised her. Eldest sister cursed her.

Well, there was a wedding and a feast, and they went to bed, and within a year Cinder-girl gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Eldest sister was so green with envy she stole the newborn baby and left an ugly dog in the bed. When the prince saw the child, he was so embarrassed that he had fathered a dog, he said nothing.

Another year, another child, this time a son. Eldest sister stole the child and left an even uglier dog in the bed and told the prince that Cinder-girl had given birth again. The prince felt disgraced. Cinder-girl implored him for another chance.

Another year, another son, another ugly dog, and the prince convinced himself he had married a witch. He ordered the servants to drag her out of bed, tie her to a stake and burn her. The beggar-woman appeared, enchanted the servants, freed Cinder-girl, turned her into a grimy pig and told her to hide in the forest or else her husband’s huntsmen would cut out her liver and hang it by the castle gate.

So Cinder-pig hid in the forest for many years while her children were raised by her eldest sister. One day, she saw her children playing by the river. She approached them and told them not to cry. She explained that she wasn’t a pig, she was their mother, and she was about to be slain by their father’s huntsmen, who would hang her liver by the castle gate. She told them not to be squeamish, to go to the castle, take a piece of her liver, make a wish and all would be well. Being children they were quite happy to follow the advice of a talking pig.

The day dawned when Cinder-pig was chased and slain by the prince’s huntsmen, and her liver was hung by the castle gate. Firstborn girl was the bravest. She remembered what her Cinder-pig mother had told her, and she went alone to the castle gate, reached up on her tiptoes, picked a piece of the slimy red liver and took it to her brothers who were waiting by the river. They made a wish, to live happily together by the river, and in the blink of an eye there stood a cottage full of gold.

The children ran away from eldest sister and lived in the cottage by the river. One day, a stranger passed by and stopped to light his pipe. He saw three children wearing golden belts, so he knocked on the cottage door and asked for a light for his pipe. The boys invited him in, but the girl said no. He ordered the boys to give him their belts and as they did, they turned into swans and swam on the lake. Firstborn girl ran into the forest and hid. She remembered what the talking pig had told her.

She crept back to the castle gate, picked a piece of the red liver, returned to the cottage and wished for her family to be together again. The swans turned back into her brothers, the pig liver became her Cinder-girl mother and the prince walked in as if he had woken from a dream.

Cinder-girl’s family lived a simple life in the cottage by the river, and the brave firstborn girl, when she was old enough, travelled the world and became rich with wisdom.

Well, those are the adventures, there’s no more to tell.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for a tale of Tattercoats.  

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

Hello lovelies! More recipes from the House of Hummus. These are the two I use most often as I love the cheesy taste that the nutritional yeast flakes gives them, plus nooch (as all the cool kids call it) is full of B vitamins.

Remember you can freeze hummus, so make the big batch and pop two in the freezer and one in the fridge.

source

Aged Cheese 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)
12 TB nutritional yeast flakes
2 TB tahini 
2-3 TB oil (start with 2 and see how it seems)
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp yeast extract like Marmite or miso paste
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.

Smoky Cheese 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)
12 TB nutritional yeast flakes
2 TB tahini 
2-3 TB oil (start with 2 and see how it seems)
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
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.  

Pimp your hummus: Leave out the smoked paprika and add 1/4 pesto. This is even better with the nutritional yeast flakes than with the basic hummus.

Enjoy!