Hummus

Continuing in my lazy blogger mode, below is a post from a different blog I wrote a couple of years ago. Therefore, the prices shown are old and certainly less than they would be today. I believe you'd save even more money making your own hummus today.

I bought prepared hummus for years but never really liked it.  It was one of those foods that seemed fake to me and although there are plenty of prepared foods I ate, I always questioned how fresh they were, how nutritious, and although it's difficult to avoid, I try my best to limit the amount of plastics I buy or use or eat food from.

Turns out (and I know because I timed it), that it takes a mere five minutes to make your own hummus, less than ten minutes (nine to be exact) to make it and wash all the prep dishes. I estimate it cost less than $1.50 to make two cups worth using canned beans. Our local market sells a large container (but I forgot to see just how large, I'm guessing a cup) for $3.68, so for ten minutes of work, I save $2.18 and have fresh hummus, made to my own specifications.  When I soak and cook the beans myself, there's a bigger monetary savings, and a bigger environmental saving - one less metal can produced, one less metal can in the recycling pool.

Traditionalists stuff hummus into pita pockets, but I love it on a dense whole wheat bread, with slices of tomato, red onion, and lettuce or sprouts.  For a long time I gave it to my son Harry for lunch plain on bread as he was the kind of vegetarian that liked to avoid vegetables (so perhaps he was more of a carbosugovore as he tried to subsist on carbohydrates and simple sugars).

The Recipe (I didn't forget about it, I was just musing)

15 oz. can garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)

3 T tahini

1/3 cup water

2 T lemon juice

1 T cumin

1 clove garlic

ground pepper (I did 20 turns on my pepper mill)

Place all ingredients in a blender.  Blend.  Use a spoon to scrape the sides and blend again. Stop when the hummus is as smooth as you like it. 

For the creative: try different spices - cilantro is great, you can't go wrong with parsley, or another clove of garlic for those who aren't speaking to coworkers right after lunch.  You may be able to trick your family's carbosugovore by sneaking in some grated carrots, celery, or bell pepper - these would also add a nice crunch.  Speaking of crunch, if you use a food processor instead of a blender, you'll get a crunchier hummus - use the blender if you like your hummus to have the store-bought consistency. 

Clean Food

Yesterday's post convinced me that pointing you toward resources I use and like is the way to go. Rather than typing out my own recipes, I'll give you links to find others' recipes (or whatever). It's faster and more fun for me (since these days I'm not interested in sitting here at the computer) and if you read my cranky post from January, I'm not that into recipes myself - I find it difficult to translate how I cook (a "measha" of this, a pile of that) into a recipe someone else can follow.

However, I also find it difficult to find cookbooks or websites that have truly healthy (and delicious recipes). Terry Walters books are different - the books the recipes use healthy ingredients, the ones I've tried taste good and as an added bonus, the books are beautiful. 

Walter's first book Clean Food was my inspiration for studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Walters is a graduate and when Barnes and Nobles highlighted her book and mentioned the school, I remembered being interested in it years before. I realized then that the timing was right for me to return to school and I enrolled a few weeks later.

This being 2011, of course Walters has a website where you can find some recipes.  Her books are Clean Food and Clean Start. 

If you check them out, please let me know what you think of them!

Vegan Recipes....Yum! (Really)

Eesh. It's been too long. And, since I'm too busy and unmotivated to write but still have info. and ideas I want to pass along, here's a new format that I'm going to work on: I'm just gonna pass on good stuff.

Inspired by one of my new Yoga buddies from the Yoga Teacher Training course I'm enrolled in, here's a link to a wonderful website chock full of vegan recipes: The Post Punk Kitchen. The Post Punk Kitchen was created, long ago in cyber-space time (2003) by Isa Chandra Moskowitz as a fun vegan cooking show. Back then Moskowitz was helped by friend Terry Hope Romero and they went on to host this website and write a number of truly excellent vegan cookbooks together.

I love the site and their cookbooks because
1. the recipes are uninformly excellent.
2. the recipes are easy.
3. the books are beautiful and are witty and fun reads - fun to read even when the last thing you want to do is find a recipe to cook.

I'm not vegan - my vegan experiment lasted a month but I treasure this website and the books by Moskowitz and Romero that grace my bookshelf: Veganomicon and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. One of these days I'll surely order who Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World if only for the title and cupcake porn.

Should you include animal products in your diet, I still highly recommend this website and these books.