I haven’t made hummus in a long time.  It is so easy just to pick up a container at the grocery store.  The last few times I made hummus we didn’t eat much of it and it ended up in the bin, the garlic was too strong.  This time I decided to roast the garlic first to make it sweet and mellow.  It worked wonderfully, it was really good, from now on I will roast the garlic before adding it to hummus.

This really is quite simple to make so if you like hummus and have never made it you should.

To roast the garlic:

Take a whole garlic bulb and cut the top off.  Place the bulb in a piece of foil drizzle it in a good glug of olive oil, wrap and bake in a 350F oven for about 20 minutes.  It should look golden and sticky when done.

Sometimes I roast a few bulbs at time and once cooled place them in a jar covered in olive oil for use in recipes.  They keep for weeks like that as long as they are completely covered in oil.

For the hummus:

Place a (540ml) can of chick peas,(rinsed and drained) into a food processor.

Add the full bulb of garlic (squeeze the cloves out of the bulb, discard the peel)

Add about 3 Tbsp tahini (sesame paste)

freshly squeezed lemon juice lemon juice, to taste.  At least a 3 tbsp.

and a generous pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp ground cumin and 3 tbsp water

Blitz it, drizzling in a few tbsp olive oil until it is nice and smooth.  I usually stop a few times to scrape down the sides and continue blitzing.  Taste and see if you need more lemon or salt.  Add what you want to get the flavour and continue processing until it is as smooth as you want.

Serve drizzled in more olive oil.  I sprinkled with some sumac.

We served it for dinner with a salad that Evie made (all by herself), homemade pita breads and beef kabobs.

The recipes for the pita and kabobs will follow soon!