Hummus

My goal for this week was to teach my oldest child how to make 5 healthy, easy items to eat that would take a minimal amount of prep.

Earlier this week, we taught oldest child how to make a yogurt parfait.  By layering fruit (fresh or frozen), yogurt, and granola, you have a very decent, quick breakfast.  If the granola that you use has nuts in it, you have just cranked the protein level up a notch.

The second of five items that we taught him to make was Hummus.  A quick and easy meal, hummus is power packed with protein.  A minimum of ingredients, a whirl in a blender or food processor, and you've got a meal that can hold you for hours.  Hummus can be eaten with pretzels, pita bread chips, put in between slices of bread for substance in a veggie sandwich, the possibilities are endless.

This is the recipe that I taught the boys to make today:


Hummus:

1 can of chickpeas, (also known as garbanzo beans). Save 2 TBSP of water from the beans.

1 clove of garlic, peeled.

The juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp. salt

2 TBSP high quality extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup sesame tahini (will be found in the vegetarian/health food section)


In the bowl of your food processor or blender:

Add the sesame tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt, 2 TBSP bean water, blend well.

Add the chick peas, blend well.

Blend until it looks smooth and creamy, serve immediately.

If you are not planning on eating this right away, store covered in the refrigerator.


A few notes:

From beginning to end, it took oldest child 5 minutes to make this.  The hardest part was peeling the garlic clove.

If you add too much water, the only way to thicken this back up again is to add another can of chickpeas.

This recipe only dirties one item: the blender or bowl of the food processor.  These are items that can easily be put into the dishwasher. 

The most expensive part of this recipe is the tahini.  However, once you buy a container of tahini, you've got enough to make several batches of hummus.  Your cost for this will vary, but this batch came up under $1.25.   Much, much cheaper than the $5 containers of pre-made hummus you buy in the store.