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HUMMUS

Hummus is a famous Middle Eastern dip which is now found around the world, including in many supermarkets in the West. Some of its key ingredients include chickpeas, sesame seed paste (tahina), garlic and lemons. Nutritionally, it is high up the ladder: dietary fibre, protein, Vitamin C, manganese, folate, iron, zinc, and more.

How do you eat it? It is often served as an appetiser in the Middle East mezze, and has a variety of garnishes: paprika, olive oil, chopped cucumber or tomato, parsley, caramelised onion, and the list goes on. You can scoop it up using pita bread, spread in on the inside of a falafel sandwich, or simply serve as a side dish.

Hummus is very common throughout the Arab world. The Israelis also love it, too, in part because it perfectly fits within their religious dietary laws. Hummus can be eaten with meat dishes as well as milk dishes. According to The Christian Science Monitor, Israel’s have made hummus a national food symbol and eat twice as much as their Arab neighbours. FN

Hummus is amazingly easy to make, nourishing, and tasty. Why not give it a try?

HUMMUS

    1 cup cooked garbanzo beans (you can buy the canned version or you can buy dry and soak them. The latter approach is cheaper and probably more nourishing)
    4 tablespoons lemon juice
    1 clove garlic
    2 tablespoons tahina (ground sesame seed paste, can be found in the health food section of the grocery store or in health food stores)
    2 tablespoons olive oil
    1 teaspoon salt
    Black pepper to taste
    Paprika for garnish

Put the chopped garlic in the blender, then add the garbanzo beans. After this, add to the blender tahina, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Blend until there is a creamy consistency. Once blended, put into the serving bowl. For a garnish, put olive oil on the top, sprinkle with paprika, and perhaps add a few un-mashed garbanzo beans. Serve.

FN (‘Hummus brings Israelis, Palestinians to the Table, Josha Mitnick, July 25, 2007, as reported in Wikipedia ‘Hummus,’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummus)


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