Whip up some homemade creamy roasted garlic hummus!

I just fell in love with hummus all over again! This morning I wanted to whip up some hummus for my Middle Eastern lunch I had planned. I was getting frustrated with the price of hummus increasing at my local grocery store and how the packaging they are using is deceiving because the bottom of the container is raised leaving less space for hummus. To say the least, I haven't been buying it lately. I only thought to make it again so that I could play with my little food processor. I got the cutest little food processor as a gift and I've been working that little guy like no tomorrow. We'll see how long it lasts but I'm thinking of doing a 90 day review on it.

All I can say is WOW, homemade hummus is sooooo velvety, creamy and ooooo so good. I never knew how delicious it was homemade. I tried years ago to make it with a blender and it didn't go so well. It was clumpy and dry and was missing something so minus the food processor I decided that store bought was the way to go with hummus. I also think my mistake was not putting tahini and using dried garbanzo (chick peas), although I soaked them in water first.

Roasted garlic Hummus
1 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans (chick peas) drained (reserve liquid)
1/4 cup of reserved liquid from canned garbanzo beans
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of tahini*
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
half of a medium clove of garlic
1 medium roasted garlic**

1) Put raw garlic in food processor and chop for about 5 seconds
2) Add all of the garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, reserved liquid, roasted garlic clove, cumin and salt.
3) Process for about 1(1/2) to 2 minutes until smooth.
4) With the machine running, add the olive oil in a steady stream and process until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

I recommend tasting the hummus with a pita chip seasoned with sea salt and see if you need any more salt.



It was soooooo good so it's definitely not going to last long. I already devoured half of it today with a pita sandwich and chips. YUM!

*Tanhini: Tahini is a sesame seed paste available in most grocery stores. I often have roasted sesame seeds on hand and don't use tahini very much so I made it by grounding the 2 Tbs of sesame seeds in a mortar and pestle and added about a teaspoon of hot water to help it get a smoother consistency.

**Roasted garlic: I always thought that roasted garlic was a time consuming and energy wasting process. Most recipes call an entire garlic wrapped up and baked in the oven for 30-35 minutes at 400 degrees. I'm not likely to eat more than a whole roasted garlic before it goes bad so it just seemed like putting one garlic in a large oven was a waste of energy so I was never motivated to make it. Today I tried it with just the amount I needed and used a handy dandy toaster oven instead! I pulled off just what I needed 4 cloves (3 to use in something else) and left the skin on. I drizzled some olive oil over them and wrapped them up in foil and put them in the toaster oven for 13 minutes and voila! Instant roasted garlic! It smelled so good and added a lot of flavor to the hummus. Of course roasting it longer will give it a smokier taste but 13 minutes was long enough to do the trick.