What to do when Tesco runs out of Houmous

If you live in St Andrews and you like houmous/hummus (that gorgeous chickpea paste), it may have happened to you more than once to be left without this student staple food. It is not an uncommon phenomenon for Tesco to run out of houmous. If you are really lucky, you may still be able to find canned chickpeas. If you are not that lucky well…come again another day or adventure yourself all the way to Aldi or Morrisons.

Or, there is one more option but it may be too much for your time and patience: a pack of dried chickpeas. You can leave these to soak in water over night and then boil them for 2 hours.

This is what to do in case you are lucky enough to get your posh hands on a can of chickpeas:

Homemade Houmous

(recipe inspired by Jamie Oliver and a few years experience in eating houmous)

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas/cooked chickpeas

juice of 1 lemon

1 full teaspoon tahini (sesame) paste (try Holland&Barret or to support the local shops try the Health Foods Store)

pinch of salt & peppa’

(The above mentioned ingredients are essential to make a real hoummous)

(The below mentioned ingredients are optional and you can try this version or experiment with the spices and things you like)

1 garlic clove, skinned

1 teaspoon olive oil

pinch of cumin

pinch of coriander

dried basil

paprika powder

Method:

If you are the happy owner of a blender/food processor then toss the drained chickpeas with some water (not too much) in the blender and blend until somooth. You can mash the chickpeas by hand. However I noticed that this is harder to do with Tesco chickpeas, as they are slightly harder. But maybe they will change the recipe :)

Now add the lemon juice and tahini paste and what you chose from the optional ingredients. Although I highly recommend that you add a teaspoon of olive oil no matter what…it makes the houmous much smoother.

I like to decorate the top with stripes of dried basil and paprika powder. 

Also feel free to try adding some cooked spinach, yoghurt, red chilli or whatever you think would be appropriate. Please send me any suggestions that you may have.

Enjoy!