Homemade Hummus

My mom, Aunt Donna, Grandma, Uncle Tony, and Aunt Mimi (my Aunt Michelle wasn’t born yet)

Homemade Hummus is something my mother taught me to make when I was a little girl. It is something she grew up making. My mother is half Lebaneese, and grew up in that culture in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania. Every time we would visit her family, a feast of Lebanese food would always be the center of our gatherings. It was an all day event.

We would start off by going to Cedars market, the same market that my mother grew up going to all her life, to pick up her “order” of all the supplies we needed. She would always tell stories about her grandfather walking her to the market for an Almond Joy. The owner who runs the market would light up when he saw “Patty Decker” (my mama) walk through the door with her four children. He’d rush over to her from behind the counter, grab her face in his now wrinkled hands and say something in Arabic with such love. Then he and his wife would gush over us kids. They would always let my sisters, brother, and I pick out a soda and give us apricot fruit rollups. After throwing in extra syrian bread and baklava, they would send us on our way with boxes of food! I always reminded my mom to check for the spinach pies, grape leaves, and hummus.

mmm… Baklava! (2009)

 My sister Jenny, me, Aunt Michelle, Aunt Mimi, Mama, my sister Jackie (2009)

Then it was back to my aunt’s house to start the preparations. All the women would be in the kitchen making their specialty dishes. My aunt Donna would make the Kibbeh Nayyeh and her homemade Baileys! My grandma would make my favorite: Mujaddara, which is lentils, caramelized onions, and rice. All the while, the paper thin syrian bread would already be out, being dipped into the homemade hummus! When it was finally dinner time, the hummus would be dolloped on every bite! The next morning, it would be next to our kibbeh and eggs. For lunch, it would be used to spread on our sandwich bread, or dipped into by our veggies. The hummus never lasted that long!

Today, I am just as obsessed with hummus! I eat it with almost every meal if I want to add a little savoriness to my dish. It’s good with eggs, veggies, sandwiches, atop of chicken, meat, or pork. It can act as a creamy base for a salad dressing… the list goes on. It is an easy find in the grocery store nowadays, however, none of the store bought brands come close to the homemade version. It also gives you an opportunity to see exactly what is in your hummus, and to tweak the flavoring to be exactly how you want it.

I personally love a fresh spicy hummus. I like it really garlicy! Which coincidentally is very good for you, especially when eaten raw. Garlic has been said to help detoxify your body, improve athletic performance, contains antioxidants that help prevent dementia, improves cholesterol and blood pressure levels, and improves your immune system helping you to combat a nasty cold. Not to bad for a little while bulb!

Now if your thinking that making your own hummus is difficult, you couldn’t be more wrong! All you need is a good blender and a few simple ingredients.

Ingredients

Makes about 1 cup of hummus

1 can of garbanzo beans (chick peas)

2-3 cloves of garlic (the more you put in the spicier it will be)

2 lemons (the juice)

2 tbsp of tahini (sesame paste)

3-4 tablespoons of olive oil

paprika (optional before serving)

Directions

Strain the garbanzo beans from their container and rinse them off. Add them to the blender. then add the juice of two medium lemons, making sure you don’t drop any seeds in the blender. Add your tahini and olive oil. Then you can blend away! If your blender has difficulty, you can add more olive oil or a few tablespoons of water to get it going along. This is also a time to play with the flavor of our hummus. You can add things like pine nuts, jalapeño, sun dried tomatoes and basil, etc.

When you are ready to serve, you can put it in a bowl as is, or you can make it more traditional by creating a well in the center, pouring olive oil in the middle of it, and then sprinkling a little paprika to finish!