Wednesday 13 February 2008

Houmous Is Hummous Is Hummus


Sometimes I say things like, 'you know what we should do? Go to a safari park!'. I then get attacked by wild animals and think better of it (photo on the right is the rhino that charged at our car on a day out with my friends yesterday -- 'SHIT, SHIT, THE RHINOS ARE CHARGING! DRIVE, DRIVE!!'). When we decided that everyone should bring picnic food for the afore-mentioned day at the safari park, I said something like, 'you know what the best food ever is? Houmous!'

Since buying houmous is apparently for lesser mortals, I bought a tin of chickpeas and decided to make it. I only had a vague recipe from Good Food magazine, but houmous is houmous is houmous.

Unless it's hummus. Humous. Hoomus? Well, anyway.


The recipe turned out to be not-so-great. I kept sticking spoons in my would-be houmous (hummus?) to try it, and concluding, 'not houmous'. I think where it had gone wrong was leaving out tahini (sesame paste), which other recipes seem to consider a bit of a staple of houmous-making; it did include a tablespoon of greek yoghurt and whatsit, perhaps thinking tahini was a bit of an ambitious ingredient.

I would have agreed, except I opened the fridge and found we actually had a giant tub of tahini there. Ah. Outwitted.
A bit of experimentation later, have a houmous recipe. It's wild and crazy fun, and takes about five minutes if you actually have a recipe and aren't just throwing random things from your fridge and cupboard in a food processor ('anchovies... can't hurt!').

Houmous
Pretty much my own o__O. Though houmous is houmous is houmous (unless it's humus?), so I'm not about to copyright it or anything.

400g can chickpeas, drained
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves
juice of half a lemon (we actually only had half a lemon, so that explains that)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp tahini paste
Ignore the yoghurt, cause what was going on with that? Bah.

1. Whack everything in a food processor and whizz it to a paste. Mine was a bit thick, so I'd add a tbsp or two of water if I did it again, but I don't want to stick that in the ingredients list in case you don't need it. And you can drizzle another couple of tsp of oil over the top, if you like.

...Thassit.

What else can I say about houmous now? Make yourself a tub of carrot sticks. Take it to a picnic. Use it as bait to distract charging rhinos from your fragile bones. Here, I'll even show you how to dip it.
You can have some good times with houmous, you mark my words.
Bloggers who made this:

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

The houmous sounds and looks great! I love the last pic :) Btw, I've already done the meme you tagged me for; you can have a look-see here...

Anna said...

Thanks! Haha, yeah, by the last pic I was running out of ways to photograph houmous ^__^. Ooh, I'll go and have a look now..

Pixie said...

I've yet to make hoummos, sometimes, the simplest recipes are the best to have around. Hoummos is such a wonderful snack. Beware of the Rhinos.

Anna said...

It's one of my favourites; I'd like to try making it with red peppers or something but that might be getting too ambitious, haha. And thanks for your rhino warning, albeit slightly too late =P

Cakespy said...

I used to work at a Middle Eastern restaurant and you should have heard some of the way people tried to pronounce it. Either way I love it!!

Pixie said...

Yeah! Am thrilled to hear you will be joining the DB and look forward to seeing your first entry! Am very frightened of this month's challenge which I must attempt this weekend!

Sharona May said...

Home made Hummus is so much better than store bought. There are so many variations that can be made, too!!! Yours does look great.

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Your hummus, or humous, or hoomus, or houmous or however is called looks really good!
I tried it once in a restaurant with pita bread chips and it was pretty good.

*By the way, thanks for your comment on my blog =)

Anna said...

Cakespy - yeah, the only thing people seem to agree on is how it should taste ^__^

Sharona May - Thanks! I think I'll have a go experimenting with other varieties next time we have a picnic or something...

Isa - Thankyou! I love the way you can dip more or less anything into houmous to make it a meal, heh. And you're welcome!

Ivy said...

Indigo it's me again. I just wanted to tell you that Hoummous without tahini is like cheescake without cheese (I couldn't think of a better example). I have posted about hoummous if you like to make it again. What Safari park is this? I visited one in the Midlands somewhere near Birmingham I think.

Anna said...

Ivy - yes, that's what I thought! No wonder the recipe seemed a bit suspicious, heh. I'll definitely have a look at your post; I think this still needs a bit of work. Thankyou!

The safari park is Knowsley, by the way - I don't know if it's the same one as the friend who drove us there didn't trust me with map-reading, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same ^__^

eatme_delicious said...

Your hummus looks delicious! I never really liked hummus until I found a recipe in How It All Vegan, which has an onion in it. Perhaps that's what makes the delicious difference for me.

Anna said...

Eatme_delicious - ooh, onion sounds like a good addition, I'll definitely try that one (my interest in houmous is bordering on the unhealthy now, haha). I'll let you know when I try it!

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