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This versatile food can be the main course or the starter, a dip or a spread. I made a fresh batch of homemade pitas, cut them into wedges to dip in my hummus.

Hummus & Homemade Pita

Hummus & Homemade Pita

Hummus and I? We have a bit of a long history…

My History with Hummus:
Once in elementary school, when I was eating a delicious pita filled with hummus, carrot shreds and alfalfa sprouts the boy across the lunch table sneered at my lunch and told me I had to eat that junk because my family was poor. The first few times I paid no attention to him (as he also picked on the Korean girl, who sometimes sat next to me, eating sushi). The petulant boy continued to badger me during lunch and eventually it began to wear on me (this went on for about 3 years!). I studied his peanut-butter and fluff sandwich on white bread, cut into four equal squares with the edges removed tucked into his brown paper bag. Other times he had potato chips and a candy bar or cookies for his lunch, sans sandwich. Whenever my hummus was on 8 grain bread instead of a pita, I told him it was peanut butter. I talked to my current PREP teacher about it and she suggested he was jealous. How could someone be jealous of food? Besides, what did she know? She was a chef who owned a restaurant and recently became a teacher. Once I was in high school I insisted on not packing hummus any longer, along with the other foods I enjoyed, which weren’t considered “normal” among my peers. It was safer to consume them in the privacy of my home.

The epiphany occurred after my second year of college at a potluck party. A young friend raved about this great new appetizer he had eaten at a boho NYC restaurant, he looked up the recipe online and made it for this party. I was curious what he made and was surprised to find out that he had made hummus. Seriously? To my surprise no one at the party had heard of it before and to my astonishment everyone LOVED IT! It caused me to reflect on the annoying boy from elementary school and it came quite clear that my family was more cultured than his and his family was also a bit pathetic that they weren’t willing to accept new and different things.

Hubster is not exactly in love with hummus, but he’s not a mocker either. Pumpkin loves to dip veggies into it, but doesn’t like it on bread or crackers. While everyone has their own hummus recipe, here’s mine. Once again, I didn’t really measure, these are more of estimates!

Hummus Ingredients:
2 c. garbanzo beans, 2 Tbsp. tahini, 2 Tbsp. lemon juice, 2 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 garlic clove, pinch of cumin, fresh ground sea salt

Hummus Directions:
Combine all ingredients in food processor until creamy.

Serving Suggestions:
When putting together a hummus platter my mother would always create beautiful scenes using paprika, olives, parsley, olive oil, cucumbers, carrots, sesame seeds, pita wedges, etc… I usually keep this in mind with my presentation….

What did you do over the weekend?

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