Having used up the entire jar of tahini a few months ago, I forgot all about making hummus on a regular basis. In the grocery store the other day, I found a teensy container of hummus with some flat pretzel bits in the container that had a price tag of $1.99 – BUT – on sale for $.99. I thought I would try it. So far it is still in the refrigerator, but I *did* make a huge batch of my own this afternoon.
I tossed a couple of cups of dried garbanzo beans, bay leaves, and some seasonings, into the pressure cooker, and an hour later they were ready to go. Love being able to do beans at my whim! I got out the food processor, put in about three quarters of the beans, a few globs of tahini, the juice of two smallish lemons, two small garlic cloves (ICK!), a fair amount of Vegesal, about a third of a big jar of Mezzetta marinated red peppers, and several splashes of balsamic vinegar.
I gave it a go, and stopped the machine when the mixture was still a bit chunky, but after tasting it, decided it needed a lot more Vegesal. So it got smoother than I had planned. Smooth is how it is supposed to be, but I wanted it chunky. Oh, well. Next time.
I topped it with some regular sesame seeds and some smoked paprika. I think you’re supposed to drizzle olive oil on it when serving, but I’m not clear what the point of that is, so I didn’t do it.
We dipped a few Triscuits into the mixture before going back to work on our camper van. The grounding lug had come loose from the battery bank, so some fancy footwork needed to take place to reattach it. I was able to provide some assistance, so we actually got the task accomplished.
Now we are ready to get the new charger/converter and new batteries, and we will be all set to have an adventure.
Wheeee!
Adventures of Dorrie Anne 
What is vegesal?
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It is a mixture of sea salt and ground-up veggies. I have been using it for over fifty years. Regular salt has a nasty taste to us now after all these years. It was originally by Gaylord Hauser, but has probably been bought out by a conglomerate of some sort somewhere along the way. Nonetheless, the product has remained entirely the same through all these decades.
It is very flavorful, so you don’t use as much of it as you might with regular salt.
See at Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Spike-Gourmet-Natural-Seasoning-Vege-Sal/dp/B000LKYXUC
I buy the 20-oz. package and refill the many jars that I have acquired over the years.
WARNING: The holes are big, so it comes out much faster than you would expect, but you will get the hang of it fairly quickly. I still use regular sea salt (Bob’s Red Mill) for adding to pasta or poached egg water, and in sourdough bread (just started a batch!).
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Why not take the LD?
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Indeed, we will. The Sportsmobile is our toad! ;->
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I can see that following your blog is going to involve mouth watering moments! Looks amazing. Thanks for answering the question about vegesol, I was wondering the same thing.
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We believe that diet has had a LOT to do with Gary’s longevity. Stick around!! ;-> I’m anxious to follow your travels in that cute little egg!
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Home made hummus is the best. Love the addition of peppers here. 🙂
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I was snookered, though, by having whirled the garbanzos while they were still warm. When the whole thing cooled off, it was too thick. I should have added some of the “pot likker” from the beans and/or a goodly amount of the fluid with the peppers. When I thaw out the next batch, I may reintroduce it to the food processor and add more peppers. I thought I was putting in a lot, but turns out that it could have taken many more to give it some real tang. I forgot to say that I added some 18-year old balsamic vinegar to it. That was a nice bit of flavor, too.
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Hummus purists claim processing the garbanzo beans when still warm is the best, but indeed they add quite a lot of the cooking liquid to it.
I like the idea of balsamic vinegar, though for me it’s usually lots of lemon that works the best. 🙂
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I squeezed all of the juice from two smallish lemons into the mixture, but, being a lemon aficionado, I thought it could have used more. There’s no such thing as “too much lemon” (that goes for cheese, too, but probably not in hummus!).
I’ll do better on the thickness next time. It’s so easy to do it again!
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Totally agree on both! 🙂 And yes, cheese with hummus is an abomination!
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I love chickpeas – we buy them in bulk!!! I like the idea of balsamic vinegar!!!
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I find the nice organic ones are quite reasonably priced in a five-pound bag. They get used up more quickly than I would have imagined.
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They do indeed!💛💛💛
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Camper van! Eager to learn more about that!
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Same ol’ Sportsmobile that we use as a toad with the motor home and for day trips around home and out on the road.
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