I love hummus. Love it. Could sit down with a bowl and eat the whole thing with a spoon. For some reason, I’ve always thought it was really complicated to make at home. I just found out it isn’t, really. Lengthy, yes. You have to think of soaking your chickpeas the night prior, then you have to cook them for about an hour, but these steps, while they demand time, don’t demand any attention at all.

Really, all it takes is the time you need to grind the cooked chickpeas in the food processor and add a few other ingredients. So could you whip one up on a busy weeknight? Probably not. This one will have to wait for the week-end. But it won’t cut you off of your entire week-end either. And trust me, it’s worth every single minute that you will spend making it, and more!

I won’t take credit for tonight’s recipe, I found it on the Internet and the only change I made to it is I added a quarter of a teaspoon of Sambal Oelek. It was absolutely perfect, I’d say. This is the recipe I will always be using always. Just look how creamy it is. Beautiful!

As for the Fattoush salad, I guess it was more “inspired” than traditional, but it was pretty darn close to the real thing if you ask me. I didn’t have any sumac, which is one of the key ingredients in traditional Fattoush salad, but I don’t think it made that big a difference.

Here’s what I used:
(that was for 2 people, but we didn’t eat it all. I say it can easily serve 4, especially if served as a side or entrée)

  • Half a head of Iceberg lettuce (that’s all I had on hand…)
  • Half a red bell pepper, diced
  • Half a seedless cucumber, in large chunks
  • About 20 grape tomatoes, cut in half
  • 5 radishes, cut in half and sliced
  • About 20 Kalamata olives, pitted
  • Half a cup chickpeas (I always make extra when I cook chickpeas!)
  • Half a cup Kidney Beans (I had some leftover from chili night)
  • A handful of fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
  • 1 whole wheat pita bread, cut in bite size pieces
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

For the dressing

  • 6 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • pinch each: salt, pepper, cumin
  • about 20 leaves fresh mint
  • ¼ cup fresh parsley

Directions

  • To put the salad together, throw all the vegetables, beans and olives in a bowl.
  • In a mixing bowl, toss the pita, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Transfer onto a baking sheet and cook in the oven on broil, stirring often, until golden on all sides. Add to the vegetables but don’t mix them in just yet.
  • Combine all the ingredients of the dressing in a food processor (a magic bullet works wonders!) and blend for about 1-15 seconds. Add to the salad and mix everything together.
  • Serve immediately.