Tag Archives: hummus

Black and white hummus

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I’ve been having some fun experimenting with different bean bases for hummus lately. (Yes, that’s my idea of fun. Go ahead, tell me I’m weird.) Traditional hummus is made with chickpeas, but the variations are pretty limitless when you switch up the bean.

Black bean hummus takes on south of the border flavors when you add a fistful of chopped cilantro and some chipotle chili powder. Omit the tahini you might use in typical hummus and use olive oil and some of the bean liquid to make it move in the food processor. Be generous with the cilantro if it’s your thing, or lean into the chipotle.

black-bean-hummus

With white beans, I love to use avocado to make it creamy. A bit of cayenne goes a long way here.

white-bean-hummus

The wonderful thing about these is that you can experiment with ingredients as you go until it gets smooth.

A few fledgling tips:

  • Use canned beans or soak and cook them from scratch. Here it’s good to overcook them somewhat so they are soft and mushy, since you’ll be running them through the food processor.
  • Don’t forget salt and pepper.
  • Do lots of taste tests with different dipping vehicles: red or green peppers, carrot sticks, whole grain chips, crackers, bread, pita chips… use your imagination!

Market Finds: Baby eggplant

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One of my favorite Capitol Hill activities is exploring Eastern Market, and I’ve decided to share some of my best finds here. Check back each week for something delicious, unusual or downright fun, along with how I prepared it and where you can find it.

baby-eggplant

 

This week’s find is another from Barbour’s Fruit Farm’s booth at Eastern Market’s new Fresh Tuesday market. They said they’ve been getting a lot of baby eggplants looking like this, and I thought they were just too cute!

I sliced this up and tossed it in olive oil, salt and pepper with some zucchini slices, then roasted it (in the toaster oven, so as not to bake myself in my apartment). It made for a great open-faced sandwich on thick whole grain bread with hummus.

Visit Barbour’s Fruit Farm on Tuesdays at the corner of 7th and C Sts. SE, or on the weekends on the south side of the market building on C St. SE.

The Food Matters Project: Updated Tea Sandwiches

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I recently stumbled upon The Food Matters Project for the first time and instantly felt like I had found kindred spirits. Those of you who know me in real life have probably heard me talk about Mark Bittman’s “Food Matters” and the cookbook that goes with it, and I’ve even blogged about it. The Food Matters Project is a community of people who share inspiration with each other every week by picking a single recipe from the book and posting all the meal ideas it sparked.

Naturally, I wanted to be a part of this from the moment I heard about it.

This week’s recipe was chosen by Aura, whose blog is full of gorgeous photos and lots of veg-friendly recipes; I highly recommend checking it out! She picked Updated Tea Sandwiches, which was a perfect choice for those of us who are suffering this interminable heat wave.

I think the spirit of the tea sandwich is in its simplicity. After all, Bittman points out that traditional tea sandwiches were as non-gimmicky as it gets — just butter and cucumber. My take had three ingredients: bread, grape tomatoes and hummus.

I used thin-sliced bread and chopped up the tomatoes small. I often make my own hummus, but this week I had Trader Joe’s Kalamata Olive Hummus, which added some extra flavor to the simple sandwich.

Trader Joe's Kalamata Olive Hummus

Hummus and tomato tea sandwiches

2 slices of thin-sliced bread
6 grape tomatoes
3 tablespoons hummus (I used Kalamata Olive Hummus from Trader Joe’s, but any type would probably work well here)

Chop the tomatoes into small pieces by cutting them lengthwise twice so they are in 4 long pieces, then chopping each of those into halves. Spread hummus on one side of each slice of bread, then put the chopped tomatoes on one side. Put the other slice on top, hummus side down, and press lightly. Cut into quarters diagonally.

Serves one.

I had this with a refreshing glass of tomato juice to beat the heat.

Hummus and tomato tea sandwiches

Thanks for the pick, Aura!

Fledgling snacking

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If you’re going to give yourself room to experiment in the kitchen, that means giving yourself plenty of time, especially if you’re a cooking newbie. And if you come in starving, you will eat whatever you can most easily put in your mouth, whether that’s a cold cut sandwich, a bowl of cereal, or just ordering takeout.

So I’ve found that one major boost to creativity in the kitchen is effective snacking. The key is finding snacks that are both convenient and healthy, because one of the best ways to destroy a healthy eating plan is to load up on snacks. The next step is to make them accessible, which means keeping snacks handy at your desk or wherever you find you typically need them. For example, I have a short commute so I don’t need to carry anything with me in my backpack, but if you don’t have time to eat before you leave work and you have a long commute, it might be good to keep something handy in the car.

I’m pretty reliable with my snacks and tend to get hungry for them around the same time every day. I typically keep bananas, nuts and apples at my desk and hummus and veggies in the office fridge. Dried fruit like raisins or dried cranberries works well with almonds. Trader Joe’s has a great selection of trail mixes along with dried fruits and nuts so you can make your own combinations. Mark Bittman also has a great recipe for roasted chickpeas from his Food Matters cookbook, which make for an addictive alternative to nuts (and are also fantastic on salads in place of croutons).

Roasted chickpeas

Popcorn is a great healthy option as well, although a lot of the grocery store varieties come with lots of artificial flavorings, fat and salt. I like to buy the kernels and make homemade popcorn in a paper bag in the microwave (another stroke of genius from Bittman), which makes the flavor so much fresher and gives you the freedom to add seasonings as you like. All you have to do is toss about a quarter cup to a third of a cup of kernels in a paper lunchbag, drizzle a bit of oil over it (I like to use vegetable oil), fold over the top of the bag a few times and pop it in the microwave. Depending on your microwave, it will probably take less than 3 minutes, but just as you do with any other microwave popcorn, stand by and listen for when there are a few seconds between pops. Sprinkle it with salt and any seasonings you’re in the mood for. Some of my favorites include curry, cumin and cayenne.

What is your favorite snack?

Popcorn

Falafel: deconstructed

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I was planning on making falafel tonight, but after a somewhat heavy lunch (cough, Wingsday, cough) I didn’t want to put any more fried food in my system. World, meet the deconstructed falafel.

Deconstructed falafel

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp onion, sliced thin
1/4 cup cooked chickpeas
cumin and coriander, to taste (I used a liberal sprinkling of each)
1/2 cup chopped romaine lettuce hearts
1/2 small tomato
2 tbsp hummus of your choice (I used fresh garlic hummus from Whole Foods)
salt and pepper

1. Heat the oil over medium-low heat in a small pan. Add the garlic and onion and stir until fragrant.

2. Add the chickpeas, spices and salt and pepper. Stir all together and mash the chickpeas a bit with a potato masher. Add more olive oil and spices as needed.

3. Cook the chickpea mixture for about 5 minutes, or until it’s heated through and golden brown.

4. Chop the tomato and put it on a plate with the lettuce. Add the chickpea mixture and the hummus.

5. Serve with pita chips.

Serves one.

I actually served this with a tortilla that I had brushed with olive oil, dusted with S&P and baked for a few minutes in the toaster oven, since I don’t have pita or pita chips right now, and it worked fine. It would be really good inside a pita as well.

Great workday sandwiches

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I’m a big believer in the school of thought that says bread just isn’t worth it unless it’s good. (I’m not sure if a school of thought saying that really exists, but if it doesn’t, I will volunteer to be the founder and spiritual leader.) I’ll deal with Wonder Bread-style slices for a PB&J on occasion, but after that, I draw the line.

That said, I’ll go out of my way for a good loaf of bread. For the past few months, I’ve been obsessed with Trader Joe’s six-grain bread with pumpkin seeds, and I really do make the extra stop to pick it up rather than settle for whatever I can grab at Giant. I’ve tried other varieties and keep going back to this one. It’s thick, grainy and slightly sweet. Toast it for a few minutes and spread a little butter on top and it will literally melt in your mouth.

It’s also great for sandwiches. There are two sandwiches that I routinely have for lunches at work–they’re easy and delicious, but they’re definitely centered around the good bread. So make sure you’ve got the quality base to work with and the rest of the sandwich will just fall together.

Balsalmic veggie and hummus sandwich

Bonus: This smells so good that everyone will be jealous as you heat it up at the office.

Ingredients (makes enough for 2 sandwiches):
Prep time: 30 minutes the night before, 5 minutes at lunchtime

2 cups assorted raw vegetables, sliced thin (I usually use zucchini, summer squash, eggplant and onions, but feel free to get creative on this one)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tbsp hummus
4 slices good bread

1. The night before, prepare the vegetables. Combine the sliced vegetables in a large bowl with the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and mix together until coated evenly.

2. Cover a small baking sheet with tin foil and spread the vegetables over the pan. Don’t pile them too high or the ones underneath won’t cook.

3. Preheat the broiler. I usually use the toaster oven for this because it’s just faster to preheat.

4. Put the vegetables under the broiler. Time will vary depending on how many are in there and how thinly you sliced it, but stir them around a couple of times during the cooking process to make sure the ones underneath get some heat, too. Keep a close eye on them–I have burnt these many a time because I’ve left the kitchen and then gotten distracted. It helps to set a timer and then just add more time as needed.

5. Once all the vegetables are softened, remove from heat and throw them in a container to keep in the fridge overnight.

6. At lunchtime, heat up the vegetables and toast the bread.

7. Spread the hummus over the bread and pile the veggies on top.

Note: This sandwich can also be made with goat cheese instead of hummus and the result is just as good.

Avocado and white bean tomato sandwich

This one gets some weird looks in the kitchen as you make it, but it’s good enough that you’ll barely notice. This sandwich was adapted from a recipe in Health magazine.

Ingredients (makes enough for one sandwich):

1/2 cup canned white beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 avocado
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 tomato
2 slices good bread

1. Mash together the avocado and white beans until they form a sort of chunky spread. Stir in salt and pepper little by little, tasting along the way to make sure you don’t overdo it.

2. Toast the bread.

3. Spread the avocado and bean mixture over the bread. Layer the slices of tomato on top.

Mediterranean-inspired lunch

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At the gym a few weeks ago, I found a recipe for tabbouleh made out of quinoa in Health Magazine and immediately copied it down. It’s super easy: basically cooked quinoa mixed with lemon juice, tomato, cucumber, parsley, pine nuts, and a bit of salt and pepper. Unfortunately, I can’t find it on their recipe database because I think they don’t post every recipe they publish online–but they do have plenty more great ones here.

After assembling the tabbouleh, I brushed a bit of olive oil and dusted salt and pepper over a whole wheat pita from Trader Joe’s sliced into triangles and stuck them in the toaster oven for a few minutes to brown into pita chips. Add a few spoonfuls of hummus and a bunch of fresh grapes for dessert and I had a gorgeous and delicious Mediterranean lunch.

It was fantastic and very filling–quinoa has such great nutritional value–although I think I’ll try adding chickpeas to the salad the next time around.

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