Served 8-10
Ingredients:
29 oz canned, cooked chick peas, leave a hefty handful on the side for garnish
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
juice of 2 fresh lemons
1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/8 ground cumin
1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
2 teaspoons plain yogurt
For Garnish:
1/8 teaspoon each cumin and paprika, a hefty handful cooked whole chick peas, a handful of chopped fine fresh parsley, olive oil for garnish
Serves 12-14
1. Pour drained chick peas or garbanzo beans in food processor, blend on med/high until smooth. Add lemon juice, crushed garlic, salt, cumin and continue to blend until even smoother. Finally add the tahini and last the yogurt, at this point the hommus will be a creamy texture, not runny and lighter in color than from the beginning. This process will take less than 10 minutes.
2. Pour the creamy hommus into a shallow serving dish. Use a spoon or rounded edge utensil to glide along the edges of the dish, forming a nice think rim around the dish. Then do the same thing creating another elevation closer to the center of the dish. This is where the olive oil will be poured in to, allowing it to nestle in between the raised edges.
3. Trickle the olive oil between the raised edges. Create lovely patterns of stars, mosaics, or lines with the cumin, paprika and chick peas. You can even use fresh pomegranate seeds for added color and food flare. Pomegranate seeds make festive outlines for shapes in this dish plus add a surprise tart taste in a random bite. Finally, sprinkle the parsley over the whole dish and serve with white or wheat pita wedges or pita chips.
4. Dip the bread or chips or veggies and enjoy! Sah-tien!
*Sag Tip: You can add fried pine nuts and or slivered blanched almonds for that nutty flavor over the whole dish. I recommend frying the nuts in sum-neh, a clarified butter ghee, that can now be bought in jars or cans in most grocery stores. Use 1/2 cup of pine nuts or almonds and a scant 1/4 cup sum-neh. Fry until golden brown, be careful not to leave in frying pan too long without stirring, this process is quick and can easily turn into burnt
