Tahini-Free Hummus

I still remember the first time I ever heard of hummus...Lydia was in K-5 and we were learning about world cultures.  It sounded interesting, but I was leery.  How was that pronounced...hue-mmus, hu-mmus??  Wasn't humus (with just one "m") a type of soil??  I am not a picky eater at all, but still, I didn't know about this one!  

Soon after that my mom was telling me about it. That piqued my curiosity....was it good?  Was it thick and pasty?  What do you eat it with?

I finally bought a container and wow!  Where had that stuff been all my life?!  It was amazing! 

Now our whole family loves hummus, but eating store bought hummus can get expensive. At Aldi, one little 6oz. container cost $1.99.  Not too bad, except that my family could eat just about the entire thing in one sitting! 

I decided to try my hand at making it, but the only problem was the tahini paste.  It's really expensive, as in $8.99 for a smallish jar and it wouldn't make many batches of hummus. Googling "substitutions for tahini paste" led me to discover cumin as an alternative.  I tried it and the hummus turned out awesome!  My family actually likes it better than the store bought hummus with tahini.

I made a big batch about two weeks ago and froze 2/3 of it in two wide-mouth quart-sized mason jars.  I took a jar out of the freezer on Saturday and we tried it out.  It was great!  From now on I'll definitely be making big batches of hummus and freezing portions of it!  This recipe makes about 5 cups of hummus, so you'll have plenty to eat and some to freeze for later!

Tahini-Free Hummus
yield: 5 cups

Ingredients:
1lb. dried garbanzo beans, cooked according to package directions (or 3-4 cans)

Start with:
1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best)
1tsp. cumin
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp.salt ( I used sea salt)

Directions:
1)  Put all of the ingredients in the food processor.
2)  Blend on high.  Add additional olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt until it's the right flavor and consistency.  ( I ended up adding a bit more olive oil and lemon juice, as well as 3 more cloves of garlic...we LOVE garlic!) You could even add a little water or cooking liquid from the beans to thin it out as well.  

We like ours on the thicker side, so again, just play with the amounts of olive oil and lemon juice until you get it just how you like it.

Hummus is great as a dip for veggies, pita chips, pretzels and even spread on a sandwich!  But beware...it's a little addicting!  =)

Do you eat hummus?  Or were you like me and thought it was some super weird food and it took you ages to try it? HA!  =)  If you like hummus, have you ever made it yourself?

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