Another Kitchen Experiment: Hummus

I know I write a lot about food and cooking, but I'm enjoying having access to a kitchen. At school, the only appliance freely available is a microwave on our hall. So I'm taking advantage of being at home--I find the stove, oven, blender, and freezer all very exciting. Seriously.

I find that when I cook up a homemade dish it is often fresher, cheaper, and more rewarding than the store-bought convenience food version. This is why I decided to try making my own hummus.

Hummus is actually extremely easy to make--you just blend the ingredients in a blender or food processor until well blended. However, you may not be familiar with all of the ingredients. One of the most important and obscure ingredients is tahini.

Tahini is a nut butter (kind of like peanut butter) that is make from sesame seeds and is often used in middle east cooking. It has an extremely strong taste, so you only need a small amount in your hummus, and one jar will last for several batches.

Tahini is considered an ethnic food and can be difficult to find at your typical grocery store. I could not find it at Schnucks and Shop n' Save only had a 2 lb jar for almost ten dollars. However, the Sappington Farmer's Market had three different kinds. This 16 oz jar was around 5 dollars. While 5 dollars might seem like a high price for an ingredient that is only used for hummus, I think it's worth it since I eat a lot of hummus. Store bought containers of hummus run between $3.50 and $5 depending on the store. After making a few batches, the tahini will pay for itself.

The rest of the ingredients are simple--garlic (cloves, crushed, or powder can all be used), lemon juice, and garbonzo beans (chick peas) create the base. The recipe I followed is located here. However, I deviated from the recipe, starting by adding less garlic and lemon juice, then adding more. This way I could make it as strong as I wanted.

After that, you can add whatever you want. My first batch, I added black and green olives. For my second batch, I added canned artichoke hearts. I personally preferred olives, but there are so many other combinations to try! Both of these flavors were inspired by similar store brand varieties. Other store brand flavors include things like roasted red pepper or roasted pine nut.

Have you ever made hummus? What other foods do you make from scratch that other people typically buy at the store? I'd like to hear about your own kitchen experiments. Comment below!