Berbere Spiced Hummus

After discovering a plethora of Ethiopian foods and spices at a little store 2 blocks away from us we decided to try a few new items.  I immediately grabbed the berbere, which I knew from eating the berbere beef from my favorite food truck.  We ended up with a sizable tub of it and it's become a spice that we use with a lot of foods.  Berbere is a spice blend and it's similar to a chili powder but along with the spicy chiles it could have paprika, garlic, ginger, cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, or more, all combined into one delicious red powder.  The version we got also has some nice heat.  I thought it would be a good addition to the hummus I was making for our superbowl party, and I was correct in my prediction.  It was also a great opportunity to try out a new hummus tip I had read about- peeling the chick peas.  There's an easily removable skin that pops right off of the chick pea if you squeeze it between your fingers.

We'd never been able to make a really smooth hummus and supposedly peeling the chick peas does the trick.  

I tried it out and we definitely noticed a big difference.  Our guests loved the final product!  And so did we.

Ingredients:

• 1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans)
• 2 teaspoons berbere spice (or more, to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/2 cup olive oil (or more... we didn't measure it)

Directions:

In a food processor, combine the chick peas, berbere, pepper, lemon juice, garlic, tahini, and 1/4 cup olive oil.  Pulse until well combined.  

homemade tahini

The mixture should be a bit dry.  Slowly add more olive oil until it smooths out to your desired consistency.  We didn't measure as we were doing this, but it seemed to be a lot.  Taste for more salt. Our berbere spice was slightly salty so I didn't need as much as I would usually use.  Serve with more berbere sprinkled on top and a drizzle of olive oil.  As always, homemade pita chips were the perfect pair to eat this delicious hummus!  The berbere spice was a nice change to your regular hummus recipe.  Double or triple the recipe for a larger crowd.  This amount is good as an appetizer for about 6 people.

Hummus

Hummus is really easy to make from scratch and it's great as a healthy snack or appetizer.  This is a basic recipe, to which you could add ingredients if you want to give it a different flavor (like roasted red peppers).  It is delicious on it's own too.  We made this batch for a new year's party, with some homemade pita chips.  See how to make the chips in our spinach-artichoke dip recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cans of garbanzo beans

1/3 cup tahini

juice of one lemon

3 cloves garlic roughly chopped

olive oil (approximately 1/4 cup)

1 t salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 pinches of paprika (garnish)

1 t fresh chopped parsley (garnish)

Directions:

Combine garbanzo beans, garlic, lemon juice, and tahini in a large food processor.  (Split into two batches if you only have a small one)  Pulse for 5 seconds, scrape down the sides and pulse for an additional 5 seconds.  

Begin pouring in oil as you continue to blend the mixture.  It should be pretty thick, but thin enough that you can still dip into it with a chip.  Add salt and pepper and give it a final blend.  Taste to see if you need to add more.  Put the hummus in a bowl or dish for serving.  Top with paprika, parsley, and an additional drizzle of olive oil before serving.

Tahini

This recipe would go in a category I call "why buy it when you can make it?"  Tahini is a sesame paste, made solely of toasted sesame seeds and oil.  You grind the mixture in a food processor and end up with tahini!  If you aren't familiar with tahini, it is an ingredient used mainly in Greek, Turkish, and Middle Eastern foods.  It has a consistency similar to natural peanut butter.  Most commonly for us it is used in hummus, which we love to make from scratch.  Tahini is a key ingredient in hummus and I used to buy it from the store for the very expensive price of $8 a jar!  It has much stronger flavor when you make it from scratch, and if you can find decently priced sesame seeds it is insanely cheap.  We get our sesame seeds from either the Hispanic or Japanese grocery stores because they have the best prices.   After our first time making tahini, we also used it for sesame cookies which were surprisingly tasty. 

Ingredients:

2 cups sesame seeds (you can change this amount depending on how much you want to make)

1/3 cup olive oil 

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Toast sesame seeds by placing them on a baking sheet or stone and cooking  for about 5-7 minutes or until lightly toasted without browning.   If your sesame seeds are already toasted, I would still recommend toasting for an additional 3 minutes.  Let them cool slightly before continuing. 

Place sesame seeds in a food processor.  Pulse for 3-5 seconds.  Begin adding oil and continue to blend until the consistency has come to that of a natural peanut butter.  It should be smooth without being saucy.  The tahini I've purchased at the store is much smoother than this version, but in a food processor I think this is the closest you are going to get (and it won't make a difference in your recipe.)   Add a pinch or two of salt to bring out the flavor.  Done! Keep in a covered container at room temp for 4-5 days or in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.