Hummus

I decided to post two easy middle-eastern recipes in order, because nothing beats the heat like food designed for people who know nothing but heat. Both recipes take less than 30 minutes and require little preparation.

This one is called Hummus, and is a great way to get kids to eat chick peas. I hated chick peas as a kid. But this is one way that beans don't taste like beans. You can use this as a dip for chips and crackers, for pita bread, raisin bread, vegetables, or (as a nice Turkish guy taught me) even to spread on kebob meat.

Ingredients:

2 cups canned chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup water
salt
black pepper
paprika and parsley for decoration

Directions:

1) Gently brown garlic over low heat, being careful not to burn.
2) Blend garlic, chickpeas, tahini, olive oil and lemon juice in a blender until the consistency is smooth like a milkshake.
3) Add water, salt and pepper to the blender until it tastes just right.
4) transfer it to a tupperware or a covered dish and leave in the fridge overnight. Though you can serve it right away, hummus always tastes best the next day.

Tips:

* Hummus is often served with a dash of olive oil on the top. Other garnishes include black olives, cayenne pepper, and pine nuts.
* This dip keeps very well, so you can easily refrigerate it for a week or so and pull it out for those times you have the munchies.
* In Palestine, the tahini is replaced with yoghurt. So if you find yourself without tahini one day, substitute plain yoghurt and you'll be fine.
* Hummus is useful in vegetarian and vegan diets, and has tons of vitamin C, iron and vitamin B6. Fat is also all non-saturated, so this stuff won't make you fat like some other dips might.