Recipe of the week, February 18th, 2008… Middle Eastern food from Howardsvegansoap.com

Howard’s World famous Hummus!

There are a few ways to prepare the chickpeas for this. I personally prefer to start with dried chickpeas. If you do, they need to be soaked overnight. A little hint to help them along is to add a teaspoon of baking soda to the water. They will generally double in size overnight so make sure you add enough water to allow for their expansion.

Now from here you have two choices. I personally like to sprout the chickpeas. It’s very simple, and means that your hummus is raw! Many people believe that raw ‘cooking’ has many, many health advantages. The other option is to boil the chickpeas, and I’ll tell you how to do both! Note: Only do one or the other.

Sprouting: To sprout the chickpeas, you are going to rinse the dried chickpeas in a colander, leave them in the colander, place the colander over a bowl of water, and leave them in a dark corner of your kitchen. Rinse them every eight hours or so, and after a day or two you’ll have little sprouts shooting up from the chickpeas. They’re now ready to use! (I like to use my sprouts after they’re about a quarter of an inch long. Some people leave them longer, but I feel this gives them the best flavor.)

Boiling: Take your soaked chickpeas and place them in a pot with enough water to cover them twice. Boil them for about 30 minutes and taste one. They should be getting soft. Depending on how you like them, they may need to cook anywhere from a half hour to an hour, so check them for texture every ten minutes or so. They’re now ready to use!

So whether you’ve sprouted your chickpeas, boiled them, or opened the can, here’s my recipe for hummus!

1 jar of Sun dried tomatoes (optional)
5 cloves garlic
4 cups chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini (This is important… Buy at a middle eastern deli or most grocery stores)
½ table spoon ground cumin
1/8 cup lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Get yourself a food processor. If you’re using the sun dried tomatoes, put them in first. Process until they’re smooth. Then add the garlic and chickpeas. Process for 20 seconds or so. Pour in the tahini, cumin, and lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste. Process. If you’ve sprouted your chickpeas, then it's going to be pretty thick. If it’s too thick, add some water and process again. Serve with pita and drizzle with olive oil. Enjoy!