Ahh. The magic and joy of eating food that is delicious and good for you. I have to confess, I haven’t closely studied store-bought hummus, and really can’t from this side of the Big Blue. I will say this. I know there are some things that “they” put in that I don’t put in mine and vice-versa. So if you want to know the secret to my hummus that nearly everyone loves, stick around. Hummus-Greek-food-purists: Run. Run far, far, far away. You might not survive the experience.

The first hummus recipe I ever tried called for lots of garlic, lots of olive oil, tahini, and not even close to enough salt. yerrm. I’m not one to give up easily though, so now I add my version to the rest of the mass in the online community.

First rule for cooking with legumes (that’s beans, fyi). If you buy them canned, always rinse them. Please. Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor”. Rinse the beans, your family will love you more. If you cook the beans yourself, I repeat, follow the Golden Rule, rinse the beans. Are we clear on that? Good. Let’s move on.

You’ll want 2 cans (about 3 cups cooked) of Garbanzos/Chickpeas, rinsed well. Dump them into a food-processor or blender. Add one or two cloves of peeled garlic. Do you need to repel vampires? Add more! Not worried about scary creatures in the night? Add less. Put in 1/4 cup fresh parsley or 2 Tbsp. dried parsley. You’ll want some salt. About 3/4 of a teaspoon. I like to add some other seasonings too sometimes, like 1 Tbsp dried oregano or dill. I almost forgot, drop in 1/4 of an onion.  You still need about 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp lemon juice and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water. Just add 1/4 cup water at first and then gradually add the rest if you need to in order for the machine to mix everything up well. If it’s still too thick, add a little more water. Don’t let it get too thin. Ta-da! Hummus! I always leave out the tahini, though most recipes call for it. It’s sesame paste and I think it tastes bitter. Besides, sesame gives Mr. Hot Stuff hives.

Serve this with corn chips or pita bread and a big, yummy, salad. It also makes a great wrap sandwich!

winner-winner, chicken dinner 🙂

Italicized parts were edited in after I realized that I’d left a couple of things out of this post. 😉