Vegan snacks

I haven't purchased Hummus for ages since I found out how easy it is to make (and when you make it yourself you can adjust the taste to be exactly what you love.) Making it yourself is also much more cost effective. Get creative and try adding some of the additions to create a flavorful, good for you snack. If you are willing to put a bit of time into the very best, most smooth hummus, boil your canned chickpeas for 20 minutes with a tablespoon of baking soda. Then drain and cover with cold water. You will see the skins on the chickpeas come off and fill the water. Pour off the excess water and skins and refill the pot, swirl the chickpeas and more casings will come off. I do this about 6 times to remove as many of the skins as possible and use these chickpeas for the recipe. While this adds time to the process, the end result is extremely creamy and enhances the taste.  You can choose to soak the garlic in the lemon juice for 20 minutes (while boiling the chickpeas) and strain this juice into the food processor to get the flavor of the garlic without the gritty texture as well.

But if refining your ingredients is more work or time consuming than you are up for on a given day- you can also put everything in a food processor and blend, and that is great too. I make hummus with both methods depending on the use of the hummus and circumstances of the moment. Sometimes paying a bit more attention to the preparation process is a mindful approach to cooking and feels like a special gift to self. Other times I just need a quick, healthy snack, and "quick and easy" is the rule of the day.  It's all good! 

2 cans of chickpeas rinsed and drained. 

1/4 cup of lemon juice

2 cloves of garlic crushed

3 tbs water

1/4 cup tahini

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbs of olive oil

Put it all in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add water as needed. Great add in's for different flavors include Olives, Roasted Red Peppers, marinated artichokes, pine nuts, or  Pesto. 

Serve with Pita or Pita chips, crisp vegetables or spread on sandwiches. Makes a great addition  to pasta dishes rather than heavy sauce too!