Homemade Hummus and Other Healthy Dips

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Homemade Hummus and Other Healthy Dips

September 30, 2009

Grace likes to dip her foods into all kinds of sauces and pastes. Do all kids like that?

I like to dip my food into crazy sauces, too, so I’m not sure if it’s a family thing or a kid thing.

Some dips we’ve tried recently:

A strawberry or raspberry dipping sauce
Ranch dressing mixed up with a handful of cooked white beans that have been pureed
Spinach chopped finely and blended with a basil-based pesto
Low fat sour cream mixed with salsa
Hummus

Hummus is very easy to make at home. It is just like my falafels.

Hummus

1/2 pound of dried chick peas – You have to soak these over night, rinse them, then boil them for an hour or so before using them. You could also use canned chick peas, but dried ones are so much better that there’s not even a comparison. Go with the dried ones.
1/2 cup or so of the water that you boiled the chick peas in
1 onions, chopped
1 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
a dash of cayenne pepper
1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil

Saute the onions and garlic until they are crisp tender.
Add everything except the water to your blender. Pulse the ingredients until the mixture is smooth. You may need to add water to thin the mixture enough that your blender can process it. Add it a little at a time. If you add too much water, you’ll ruin the hummus.

This makes a spicy hummus. Grace is okay with it, but if your kids are reluctant to eat spicy foods, you could cut out the black pepper, cumin, coriander, and cayenne pepper.

Grace’s Kitchen Friends

Please join in Grace’s Kitchen Friends! To play along, all you have to do is fill out MckLinky below. You can link up any post that talks about kids and food: Grace's Kitchen Friends

feeding kids
cooking with kids
kids’ nutrition
play with food or play kitchens
crafts with or about food
There are a lot of other kids and food things I haven’t listed (like growing food with kids or fun recipes that kids love!), so please don’t feel limited.

I’m easy like that, Dear Reader. The only thing I ask is that you link back here to Grace’s Kitchen Friends in your post. I can’t wait to see what your kids are doing!

Happily submitted to Real Food Wednesday, What’s Cooking Wednesday, Eat More Fruits & Veggies Challenge, Ultimate Recipe Swap, Tasty Thursday, Recipe Swap, Friday Feasts, Foodie Friday, Family Recipe Friday, Favorite Ingredient Friday, and Food on Friday

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Carol said:

Yummy! So the only time I’ve made hummus from scratch was in Ecuador in college, and I remember a very (VERY) labor intensive step of peeling the chickpeas after soaking them. They had a husky peel similar to garlic. Do you not have to peel them because they’re sold differently in our grocery stores than in the markets there, or because you’re using a food processor where we were mashing them by hand? Man, that hummus must’ve been good for all that work — we were serving 20!
Carol´s last blog ..Not Yet!!

# 1 October 2009 at 8:20 am

Tara (author) said:

Seriously, Carol? Peeling the chick peas?! I don’t peel them. When I buy them dried from the grocery store, they’re just like any other dried bean.

When you say that there’s a shell like garlic, I am imagining the papery skin on a bulb of garlic. Is that what you’re talking about?

The beans do have a skin, just like any bean, but I don’t peel that. I just whiz it around in the blender, and it turns out okay. Delicious, even.

# 1 October 2009 at 7:57 pm

Live.Love.Eat said:

I LOVE hummus. Your other dips sound fantastic too. I can give up chocolate the rest of my life to have dips and chips. That’s it.
Live.Love.Eat´s last blog ..Roasted Vegetable & Mozzarella Panini

# 2 October 2009 at 10:09 am

Mary said:

I love quick and easy recipes. Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a wonderful day.
Mary´s last blog ..Apfel Sahne Torte – Apple Cream Cake – Foodie Friday

# 2 October 2009 at 11:31 am

Food on Fridays: Quick Marinara Sauce « said:

[...] Food on Friday post! Pepper Steak) 5. Alea @ Premeditated Leftovers (sweet potatoes khmer) 6. Tara @ Feels like home (homemade hummus) 7. Prudent and Practical (3 Ways to Get [...]

# 2 October 2009 at 3:48 pm

Gollum Foodie Friday said:

I’ve been looking for a homemade hummus recipe, and now my search is over. This sounds great!

# 4 October 2009 at 11:32 am

Nicole Feliciano said:

Thanks for the dip ideas. I have to commiserate with all my foodie friends that Gourmet is closing. I am trying to find a Gourmet recipe to feature this Friday. Hope to see you over at Momtrends.

http://momtrends.blogspot.com/2009/10/friday-food-pork-and-apples.html
Nicole Feliciano´s last blog ..Flowers for Birthday Parties

# 7 October 2009 at 1:44 pm