Best Of-Hummus, Yummy and Pretty Frugal

I am reposting this in honor of the Frugal Food Series part 3: Beans.

Hummus is a middle eastern chick pea dip. It is sort of creamy and has a bit of a tang to it. Yummy delicious!!

If you buy it at your local grocery store or deli it is fairly expensive, but it is so very easy to make if you have a food processor! I use recipe #8649 from Recipezaar, but it is a basic recipe that is pretty much the same in any cookbook. The only odd ingredient is the Tahini, which is a sesame seed paste similiar to peanut butter.

It is frequently sold in the asian aisle of grocery stores, and is one of those things that has to be refridgerated after opening. Tthe recipe can be made without it. I’ve seen (but not tried) recipes that use a couple of tablespoons of plain yogurt, and I’ve often thought that you could probably use peanut butter instead.

1 12oz can of chickpeas (you could probably buy dried, soak and cook even cheaper)
1/3 cup Tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (or more!)
1/4 tsp cumin (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Put everything in your food processor and mix until it is a paste. If you feel it needs to be thinned you can use more lemon juice, reserved liquid from the chick peas, or even water.

Flavors develop better if chilled for at least a couple of hours.

Typically served with pita bread, but can be used with any cracker, as a veggie dip, or even as a sandwich spread.

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