A few years back, I decided to try and cook chickpeas instead of getting the canned variety. I got a pound bag, soaked them overnight, and cooked them the next day. I have never looked at legumes the same way again. The flavor is incomparable, the taste of freshly cooked chick peas is almost nutty, yummy!
Now what I do is I will soak a couple of different varieties of dried beans and go on a bean cooking spree: Cooking a pound at a time in my Zyliss Pressure cooker (depending on the size cooker you got, you might be able to do more than one pound) after they are done and cooled, I portion them out in individual ‘servings’, usually in snack size zip top bags (have you noticed, they seem to only be available as store brand?) and freeze. Then whenever I want to make a bean soup, hummus or a salad, I just defrost what I need and can skip the high sodium and whatever else might live in those cans of beans. For soups, I literally just drop the frozen parcel in, hummus you gotta let it defrost in the fridge overnight or use your microwave.
Ingredients
- 1 can chickpeas or equivalent frozen, defrosted
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp tahini ( sesame seed paste)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp salt (use less if using canned)
- 1/8 tsp ground white pepper
- 1 dash cayenne pepper
- 1 to 3 tbs water
Directions
Blend all ingredients in a food processor/blender, adding water until desired consistency is reached.
Serve as a dip with toasted pita chips or vegetables, or thin and use as a spread on grilled veggies
Unfinished Business: Grilled Mediterranean Eggplant with Hummus spread: taking advantage of the summer like weekend, we fired up the grill and had these puppies with a juicy, lean and clean bison steak 🙂
And Sunday night’s dinner, you ask? Oven roasted salmon with a coriander-paprika glaze… As I said, unfinished business, stay tuned, I will get to it 🙂
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