Hamilton Humus & Crostini
As I think of my family and a recipe we all love, I think of our frequent ‘go-to’ humus recipe. Whether remembered as the easy center piece to our casual Sunday night summer lake dinner ‘Pupu Platter’ of humus and pita or a winter meal of our favorite Caesar Salad with humus and pita. However, as I write this, thinking this is a favorite family recipe – maybe these meals were really all about the pita brushed with garlic oil and sprinkled with kosher salt, served right out of the oven lightly heated and broiled! For me, humus was something I looked forward to at restaurants but I had little success finding a ‘store bought’ brand that I enjoyed. And then I discovered how easy it is to make…and well, many years later, I have perfected our family humus.
Humus Recipe
Special Note: Lemon is a key ingredient here. I always use the zest, and juice, of 1 lemon. However, some lemons are more sour or sweeter and some have more or less juice than others. Therefore, my recipe below is a guide – go easy on the sugar and the olive oil. After a good blend, check for taste and consistency…you may need a little more sweetener (sugar) or liquid (which can be either more olive oil or some of the reserved liquid from the drained chickpeas).
Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas 540 ml/19 fl oz
1 lemon (juice and zest)
1 1/2 tbsp tahini
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil (or reserved liquid)
Instructions:
Gather all ingredients
Open can of chickpeas and drain liquid into a small bowl, reserve.
Pour chickpeas into a blender.
Add zest of lemon to the blender (note: it’s much easier to zest the lemon before you juice it)
Now add the juice of the zested lemon.
Add all remaining ingredients to the blender.
Blend until desired smoothness is reached.
Taste – as per the note above, this is important for this recipe. Those lemons can be tricky little rascals to work with!!
