Lemon Basil Hummus

The Round of 16 is underway and who doesn’t need a constant supply of snacks to mindlessly stuff your face with while the stress of the World Cup takes over; I know I do.

The US was eliminated and to help get over my grief, I decided to blog. I am not an advocate of filling emotional voids with copious amounts of food, but for all my other suffering American brethren; it’s ok just this once 🙂

Once again I purchased a giant bag of basil that I could never finish up before it goes bad, so as I was brainstorming ways to use up a good chunk of it in one recipe, lemon basil hummus was born in a stroke of pure genius. This dip is basically a blissful union of hummus and pesto, with elements from each dip.

I kind of just threw this dip together last minute, so I really approximated measurements (aka didn’t measure anything). The best thing about hummus is it really easy to personalize to your tastes and preferred consistency, so you really don’t need to worry about measuring anyway.

The key to getting a creamy hummus is peeling the chickpeas. Annoying? yes. Worth it? yes. Just get them out of the can, rinse them off and pat dry with a paper towel. The easiest way to peel them is just to squeeze them between your thumb and index finger, they will pop right out of the skin.

I love the flavors of lemon and basil, but didn’t want them to totally overpower the chickpea & tahini, so I spent a few minutes by the blender adding ingredients bit by bit.

Ingredients:

• 1 can chickpeas (drain and set aside the water from the can)
• 1 large handful of fresh basil leaves
• 1 lemon
• 1 T – 2 T Tahini
• 2 cloves galice
• Olive oil
• salt to taste

How to

1. Drain the chickpeas, setting aside the water from the can. Peel the chickpeas and discard the skins.
2. Add the chickpeas, 1 T of tahini, juice of half the lemon, the basil, garlic, a few tablespoons of olive oil, and a few tablespoons of the water from the can to the blender.
3. Start pulsing and scraping down the side. Add a pinch of salt and water and olive oil as you blend until desired consistency (I ended up adding the juice from another quarter of the lemon).
4. When the hummus is creamy, taste for flavor. Add more tahini if desired (I don’t like a heavy sesame taste) and probably more salt. I like to add salt at the end because the first time I made hummus I over salted it.
5. Scoop into a serving bowl and top with olive oil and fresh basil, serve immediately or refrigerate.
6. Pig out.

 

Homemade Tortilla Chips & Curry Bean Dip

I am so excited to announce that I finally went out and bought myself a big girl camera, no more grainy cell phone pictures for this wannabe food blogger! I have discovered that so much of having a successful food blog is having good quality pictures. You’ll have to bear with me as I figure out how to use this baby, also as I figure out where to set up a good “photography station” in my tiny little studio apartment. Since the best light is natural light, I might have a hard time as the only window in my apartment is right next to my bed. I am not about to spill soup all over my pillows trying to snap some shots for the blog.

Last week I made a trip to see my favorite vendor of imported treats — the Avocado Lady. Since you’re already well aware of my obsession, I’ll spare you another introduction, but I will tell you that if you plan on buying corn tortillas from her wonderful little shop, plan on buying about 75 of them. What to do when you have 75 tortillas in the fridge and you can only eat tostadas for so many meals in a row? Make tortilla chips of course!

I am kind of terrified of deep frying things in molten hot oil, also I don’t have tongs or a slotted spoon, so I baked these babies up in my toaster oven. It was so worth the hour it took me to bake them ten at a time for five minutes a batch. They turned out extra crispy and salty, just how a corn tortilla chip should be.

I needed a dip of some sort to go with these chips, and I recently found a delicious looking bean dip recipe that I have been dying to try from one of my new favorite blogs ladyandpups.com. She very accurately calls it “kick-ass” dip, and serves it with some amazing looking homemade roti. I am sucker for chips and dip so I changed it up a little bit and served it up with these tortilla chips.

Ingredients:

For the Chips:

• Corn tortillas
• sunflower or canola oil
• sea salt or kosher salt

For the Dip:

• 1 small yellow onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 3 T tomato paste
• 2 t yellow curry powder
• 1 t cumin
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t pepper
• 1 can cannellini beans
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 t cornstarch
• olive oil
• 1 t cayenne pepper
• 1 t cumin

How To:

For the Chips:

• Stack tortillas 3 0r 4 at a time and cut into quarters.
• In a small bowl, put the amount you are baking per batch (for me it was 10 as I baked in a toaster oven) and pour a few teaspoons of oil into the bowl. Shake or stir until the chips are coated. Place flat on baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt.
• In an oven preheated to 180C (350F), bake the chips for about 5-6 minutes until they begin to turn a golden brown.
• Let the chips rest on the pan for a minute and then transfer to a paper towel to soak up excess oil.
• When they have cooled, transfer to serving bowl or airtight bag/tupperware.

For the Curry Bean Dip:

• Peel and slice  the garlic and onions
• In a large pan, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over a med-low flame,  cook garlic and onions for 3-4 minutes
• Add  curry powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and tomato paste and continue cooking until onions are very done, about 10 minutes
• Rinse and drain the can of beans, add to pan and mix together well.
• Transfer mixture to a blender and add greek yogurt and cornstarch (to thicken), pulse until smooth.
• Taste and adjust for seasoning (I added a few more pinches of salt)
• In a smaller pan, heat 1-2 T of olive oil over a med-low flame. Add cayenne pepper and cumin, let sizzle for 15-20 seconds.
• Transfer the dip to serving bowl and swirl in the spiced oil.
• Serve with your homemade corn tortilla chips and Pig Out.

This dip was a perfect compliment to the homemade chips, but obviously they would go great with anything. Next up I’ll have to make a little guacamole to finish off the bag!

Can’t wait to take some more pics with the new camera and get some new recipes and good summer restaurants up on the blog!