Hummus (Chickpea dip)

Hummus is like the default lunch for me. When I'm lost in the kitchen, hummus always finds me. It can be eaten with so many things! Try it with pita bread (classic), carrot sticks, celery sticks, crackers, potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels! It can also be used as a sauce inside a falafel or Gyro sandwich. It's just plain good stuff.
I usually use canned garbanzo beans to make hummus, but this time I've made it from scratch and it tastes much better.

Ingrediants:

1/2 lb (8 ounces) of dried garbanzo beans
3-4 cloves of garlic (more of desired)
3 tbsp Tahini sauce (sesame seed sauce)
1/2 lemon
olive oil
salt

Process:
Wash the garbanzo beans and then soak them overnight. Make sure they are in a bowl larger than the amount of beans you have, they will expand.

Drain the water and place the beans in a large pot with fresh water, make sure there is twice as much water as your amount of beans. Add salt to taste and heat to boil. Let it boil on medium heat for about two hours, checking occasionally to see if the beans have softened.

Once they are soft enough remove from the stove. Wait for them to cool a bit. Place the beans, grated garlic, tahini sauce and some lemon juice all in the blender. Don't put all the broth into the blender, only add as needed if it becomes so thick the blender won't work. blend until smooth.

If you're making hummus using canned garbanzo beans, just open the can and put the beans and their juice into the blender along with the rest of the ingredients. 

Place in a dish, squeeze the rest of the lemon juice on top and drizzle with some olive oil. Garnish and serve as a dip with a variety of things (mentioned in the first paragraph)

 

Enjoy!