When we were first living together, my husband told me he doesn't like beans. He said it was something to do with the texture and the blandness. We discussed it further and I decided that he doesn't like beans because of the poor ways they have been prepared. Therefore, I said, "Challenge accepted." and have been basically force feeding him beans in small quantities since that day.
A mutual friend of ours tried to introduce V to the wonders of hummus. It was homemade and he pretty much hated everything about it. Of course he was polite and finished part of the portion he was given, but he hated every second of it.
I re-introduced him to hummus that I bought from Tesco, their Roasted Red Pepper flavour, and he really seemed to enjoy that on some veggies. We also used it instead of mayonnaise on sandwiches and he actually warmed up a bit to it.
About a month ago, I read a recipe where the person shucked their chickpeas, resulting in hummus with a whole new texture, combined with a lucky find of tahini paste at a VERY reasonable price (one could even say I paid beans for this container of tahini... eh? eh?? *elbow, elbow*) - and I knew I had to make it, post haste.
Endless Googling (endless meaning four or five minutes of searching), and I couldn't find or remember the article I had read which just meant one thing: I had to take matters into my own hands.
I started with a can of garbanzo beans or, in Swedish, kikärter, rinsed them, and made "chickpea ghosts" by squeezing the beans out of their shells.
Surprisingly, this was not as tedious as it sounds. The shells came right off and it only took a few minutes from start to finish. Not a massive undertaking by any means.
I added the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, salt, and crushed garlic to the food processor and let the machine do all the hard work.
I have a pretty fancy set-up for my food processor. You know you're jealous. We decided not to replace all of our appliances when we moved to Sweden from Ireland, so we have several electronics and appliances with UK plugs, which works fine most of the time with an adapter. For some reason though, the kitchen socket doesn't like to work with the euro adapter, so I have to pull up a chair and unplug something from the UK extender behind the TV. It is a pain in the rear, but it is a solution that works until our food processor dies and needs to be replaced (which will be any day now, I just know it). Back to the hummus...
blendy blendy...
Add some water as needed to get the right consistency, and voila! Amazingness! Actually, it could have been even MORE smooth, but my machine started making noises I didn't like, so I stopped. You should puree until SUPER SMOOTH.
Spread the hummus into a dish with a spoon, and sprinkle with paprika - then drizzle in a little olive oil. If you want it to be extra pretty (and you know you do), add a few chickpeas to the top for garnish.
If you chop carrot sticks into little sticks, and use them as a carrier for hummus-to-mouth, it helps you not to inhale it so fast... soooo delicious! The best part? V couldn't get enough.
Recipe time!
Ridiculously Smooth Hummus adapted from the recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi in his book, "Plenty"
Ingredients:
- One can of cooked chickpeas - 410 grams or 15 oz
- Tahini paste - 125 mL or half a cup
- Lemon juice, fresh squeezed if possible - 3 Tbs
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- salt to taste
- 1/8th to 1/4th cup of water, depending on how you like your hummus' consistency
- paprika (for garnish)
- olive oil (for garnish)
Directions:
Shuck the chickpeas. Really. This only takes a few minutes and it's essential to the smooth texture. Just hold the bean in your fingers and squeeze gently, and you'll find it just pops free! Super easy.
Place all the ingredients, minus the water, paprika, and olive oil into the food processor. Retain a few beans for garnish at the end if you want. Puree for a minute or two, pausing to scrape the sides until it forms into a paste, then add the water a little at a time until the hummus reaches the right consistency. Usually, hummus is very soft and almost runny, but still holds its shape when you poke it with your finger... or you know, a spoon...
Taste it and adjust to your wishes, adding more salt or lemon juice.
Smoothe into a shallow bowl with the back of a spoon and sprinkle a little paprika over the top, followed by a few tablespoonfulls of olive oil. Sprinkle the retained garbanzo beans on top to make it all pretty, and then try your best not to eat it all before you set it out to serve :-)
Good luck!
