Hummus
I’m updating this old post to include a new hummus recipe that I just created. It’s based on the recipe for Lemon Walnut Hummus in Peter Berley’s cookbook Fresh Food Fast, but I made a few substitutions/alterations, and created Pepita Hummus instead. If I ever have a bit of cooked pumpkin around I think I might try adding a 1/4 cup to make a pretty, orange “pumpkin” hummus.
This is a small recipe because I currently only have a mini food processor. If you have a larger one, by all means double the recipe.
- 1/4 cup pepitas
- 3/4 tsp. cumin seeds
- 3/8 tsp. coriander seeds
- 1 1/4 cups drained, soft chickpeas
- 2 Tbs. olive oil
- 2 Tbs. freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 small to medium garlic cloves
- scant 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp. coarse kosher salt (possibly less or more depending on how salty your beans are)
- 1 Tbs. water or bean cooking liquid
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (in order to warm up your pita bread).
- In a small to medium skillet over medium heat, toast the pepitas until they start to pop and smell fragrant.
- While the pepitas toast, add to the bowl of a food processor: chickpeas, oil , lemon juice, garlic, cayenne, and salt. Puree until it won’t puree anymore. Then, when the pepitas are toasted, transfer them to a spice mill and grind to a powder. Add the ground pepitas to the food processor and puree again.
- In the same skillet, add the cumin and coriander seeds and toast for 30 seconds, until fragrant and slightly darkened. Transfer to a spice grinder and grind to a powder. Add the spices to the food processor, and puree until smooth. If the blades won’t turn and the hummus is not yet smooth, add water, 1 Tablespoon of water at a time, until it’s smooth.
- Serve with warmed pita bread.
Adding the freshly ground pepitas and spices really makes this recipe. It’s so fragrant and roasted tasting that it’s really quite unlike hummus. Derek objected to the hummus appellation, and called it “chickpea spread.” The texture is thick and just a little fluffy, but not too airy and not too rich. I ate the hummus for lunch on warmed pita bread, with some yogurt spread (yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, and salt), sliced tomatoes, and marinated cucumbers. It was a delicious and satisfying lunch. All I was missing was a few kalamata olives. I also had the hummus for lunch with Berley’s tabbouleh recipe. Although I wasn’t a big fan of the tabbouleh by itself, with the hummus it was quite tasty.
Original post from March 15, 2007:
I used to make hummus all the time when I lived in the co-op in college, but unfortunately I don’t remember what recipe I used. I’m relatively picky about hummus. I like the Sabra brand pretty well, but not many of the other store brands.
Cook’s Illustrated Light Hummus
- 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 6 Tbs. water
- 3 Tbs. juice from 1 large lemon
- 2 Tbs. tahini
- 1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 small garlic clove, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1/4 tsp.)
- pinch cayenne pepper
- Process the chickpeas, water lemon juice, tahini, 2 tsp. of the oil, salt, garlic, and cayenne together in a food processor until very smooth, 1 to 1.5 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatual as needed.
- Transfer the hummus to a serving bowl; cover and refrigerate until the flavors meld, about 30 minutes. To serve, make a well in the center of the hummus, and drizzle in the remaining tsp. of olive oil.
My Notes:
The first time I made this I followed the recipe and I thought it was too thin, and too salty, but pretty good otherwise. The second time I made it I reduced the water to 2 Tbs., and the salt to 1/2 tsp, and left out the final drizzle of olive oil. It was still salty, but better. The hummus tastes good to me—the right combo of lemon to garlic to nuttiness—but for some reason I’ve been having trouble getting myself (or Derek) to eat it. Maybe we’ve just not been in a hummus mood.
CI says that the hummus can be refrigerated for up to 2 days, but that seems like an underestimate to me.
Derek’s friend said he has the best hummus recipe in the world. I asked him for it and he then admitted he didn’t really have a recipe per se, but that the secret ingredients are peanut butter and lemon zest. So I tried making this recipe, adding a tsp. of peanut butter, and the zest of one lemon. I was surprised that with only a tsp. of peanut butter I could taste it, but indeed I could. Derek thought it was better before the additions, however. I do like the idea of using the zest instead of just tossing it though. You know what Dr. Greger says…
I made this a second time following the recipe very closely, and I thought it was fine but Derek really didn’t like it, I have no idea why. He wouldn’t touch the stuff.
Buttermilk strata with mushrooms and leeks
This is another recipe from Peter Berley’s cookbook Fresh Food Fast. Derek bought a loaf of white bread at the cheese store, and then left for the states before eating much of it. I tossed it in the fridge and then decided to use the stale loaf in this strata recipe.
- 6 large eggs
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1/4 pound whole-milk ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 2 medium leeks, thinly sliced
- 3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil (I used 2)
- 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1 Tbs. fresh thyme leaves (I only had about 2 tsp., so I added in another 1/2 tsp. of dried thyme leaves)
- 2 tsp. kosher salt (I used 1 tsp.)
- 1/2 tsp. freshly milled black pepper
- 1 pound portobello mushrooms, stems removed and caps diced (I used about 15 ounces of white mushrooms, with the stems)
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 pound day-old, country-style artisanal bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
The basic strategy is:
- Mix together the eggs, buttermilk, cheese, and parsley in a bowl.
- Brown the leeks in a large, dry oven-proof skillet, then add the oil, garlic, thyme, and salt. Saute briefly then add the mushrooms and wine. Bring to a simmer and stir in the bread cubes.
- Pour the egg mixture over the top and stir to combine everything. Sprinkle the top with grated cheese, and bake at 450 until the strata has set, about 25 minutes.
If you want the full instructions, buy the cookbook!
Notes:
I used a 12 inch anodized aluminum cast iron pan with 2 side handles. I’m actually not sure if it’s supposed to go in an oven at 450 degrees, but it looked okay when I took it out. Berley recommends a 10-inch saute pan, but my 12-inch pan was totally full, and it’s rather deep, so I don’t see how this recipe would fit in a ten inch pan.
I cut the salt by 1/2, and thought the salt level was perfect. If you like things more salty maybe use 1.25 tsp. I also cut the oil to 2 Tbs., and it still seemed perfectly rich. I didn’t measure how much parmesan I added, but it couldn’t have been more than an ounce. The flavor of the dish was good, and especially tasty when I got a big chunk of bread, but the more leek-y bites I didn’t care for as much. Perhaps I put in too much of the green part. The texture of the leftovers was good, but when it was just out of the oven I occasionally got a “soggy bread” bite. Perhaps I should have cooked it for another 5 minutes.
This recipe works well. The dish is beautiful to look at, holds together well, and tastes fine. Despite all the positives, I’m not sure whether I would make this recipe again. It took quite a bit of work, and despite tasting good, neither Derek nor I really wanted to eat any of the leftovers. I really don’t know why, but for some reason it just did not appeal to us. It took me about 35 minutes to get it in the oven, and another 10 minutes to clean up, plus 25 minutes to bake. If I had help I probably could have gotten it done in 20 minutes. Still, it didn’t quite seem like a weeknight recipe to me. There were just too many different ingredients to buy and chop.
I must admit, however, that the recipe is a nice dish for spring. I got new leeks and parlsey and thyme and eggs from the farmer’s market. The leeks had a very hard core, the texture of a stiff rhubarb stalk. I’d never come across a leek with a hard core before, and wasn’t sure if I should try to cut it up or discard it. I ended up saving it for vegetable broth (along with the leek greens, parsley and thyme stems, and a few bruised mushrooms). If anyone knows what to do with hard leek stems, please post a comment.
Berley suggests a spring menu of this strata and asparagus roasted with garlic and lemon. I think it sounds like a nice combination. However, at first glance it seemed kind of silly to suggest roasting the asparagus. Unless you have two ovens, you have to wait for 25 minutes for the strata to be done to start cooking the asparagus. Then I thought about it more and I realized that it probably takes 5-10 minutes to prep the asparagus and garlic, and another 5-10 minutes to clean up from both dishes. So in the end the wait isn’t really that long. Plus, the strata has to cool down for 5-10 minutes, which is just enough time for the asparagus to cook. Also, once the oven is on you might as well use it to roast the asparagus. Perhaps you can even cook both dishes in the oven at the same time? Another option would be to just steam the asparagus on the stovetop.
Berley doesn’t say how many this strata recipe serves, but it’s quite large. I think with 3 bunches of asparagus this dish would serve eight.
Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
I’ve tried to make tortilla soup before, and although I don’t know exactly what the chicken-based version tastes like, I know that I’ve never achieved it. Recently, however, I tried a recipe for tortilla soup from Peter Berley’s cookbook “Fresh Food Fast.” The key innovation is that he uses a miso broth instead of a simple vegetable broth. I thought it would be strange–miso soup with lime in it–but it was delicious, and tasted like (what I imagine) tortilla soup is supposed to taste like. It definitely tasted Mexican rather than Japanese.
- 1 head garlic, cloves separated and smashed
- 1 small bunch cilantro (about 1/2 cup coarsely chopped leaves plus the stems for the broth)
- 6 corn tortillas
- 1 large ripe avocado, sliced
- 2 limes (1 for juicing and 1 for cutting into wedges)
- 2 cups bite-sized broccoli florettes
- 1 medium carrot, halved lengthwise and sliced thin on the bias
- 1 jalepeno pepper (with its seeds), sliced into very thin rings
- 1/4 cup red miso or 1/2 cup white miso
For precise instructions buy the cookbook!
Berley makes a simple broth with a head of garlic (cloves smashed but not peeled), and the stems from a bunch of cilantro. I tasted the broth and I could definitely taste the garlic, but the cilantro was pretty subtle. Then vegetables are added to the soup and cooked until crisp-tender, and then the miso and cilantro are mixed in. Finally, tortilla strips and lime-soaked avocado are spooned into each bowl.
The vegetables cooked in the soup are broccoli, carrots, and jalepeno. Adding broccoli and carrots to tortilla soup is not traditional, but they both went well with the other flavors. The jalapeno I had from my mother’s garden was hot but not too hot. Berley’s recipe says to fry strips of corn tortillas, but we can’t get corn tortillas in Germany so we used wheat tortillas. They were tasty but pretty rich tasting. Between the avocado and tortilla chips the soup was quite rich. I think the soup would be very tasty even without the tortilla chips, and more of an everyday kind of meal, rather than a special-occasion soup. The second time I made the soup I threw in a few strips of commercial corn chips. They weren’t as good as freshly-fried corn tortillas, but they added the right corn/oil taste, and were much simpler.
The main problem I have with the recipe is that it calls for 6 cups of water and 1/2 cup of white miso. Berley says you can substitute red miso to “bring it up a notch.” I’m not sure how salty white miso is, but 1/2 cup of red miso in that much soup would be unbearably salty. I added 1/4 cup of red miso to start and the soup was salty but tasty. More would have definitely made the soup too salty, however. The second time that we made the soup, we didn’t think 1/4 cup of miso was quite enough, so I had Derek add another 2 Tbs. On our second try the recipe made about 6 bowls of soup.
If you don’t fry your own tortilla strips, this recipe can definitely be made in other 30 minutes. Berley includes it in a menu with a medley made from white rice, kidney beans, green peas, and cheese. The dish was reasonably tasty, but pretty rich and not that exciting. It’s mildness was a reasonable foil to the intense soup, but both dishes were quite rich. I would have paired the soup with a lighter bean dish and more vegetables. I’m not sure I would make the bean dish again, although Derek liked it more than me. I was impressed that the two dishes together took exactly an hour to make (and mostly clean up from). If I made the menu again, I could probably do it in under an hour. The second time I made this soup I paired it with a black bean salad–highly seasoned black beans over a lettuce, tomato, and pepper salad. It was a reasonable combination but I didn’t get the recipe quite right. I was trying to recreate the black bean salad at La Feria in Pittsburgh, but I failed.
I’ll definitely make this soup again, especially if I can get my hands on jalepenos, corn tortillas, and ripe avocados.
Rating: B+
French no-mayo potato salad
Derek picked this recipe out of the Cook’s Illustrated light recipe. It’s a light potato salad recipe, with a vinaigrette instead of mayo. Unlike a typical American potato salad, the French version uses sliced potatoes, and is served warmed or at room temperature (never cold). It’s much more refined and elegant than the typical American mayo-laden, pickle-studded potato salad.
Tips from CI: It’s important to slice the potatoes before boiling them so that the slices don’t break apart. Plus the potatoes cook more evenly and you don’t have to burn your fingers trying to cut hot potatoes. To keep the potato slices from getting damaged over overcooked, CI has you lay the potatoes on a baking sheet and pour the vinagrette over them, and let them cool before moving them to a bowl. To cut back on oil, CI recommends adding some of the potatoe cooking water which is starchy and so acts as a binding element to hold the salad together and keep the potatoes from drying out. CI says that white wine can also be used. They also blanch the garlic to tone down the aggressive raw garlic flavor.
- 2 pounds medium red potatoes (about 6, 2.5 ounces each)
- 6 cups of water (1/3 reserved for the salad)
- 2 tablespoons salt (or reduce a bit if you’re salt sensitive)
- 1 medium garlic clove, peeled
- 1.5 tablespoons white wine or champagne vinegar
- 2 tsp. Dijon mustanrd
- 2 Tbs. olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
- 1 small shallot, minced (about 2 Tbs.)
- 4 Tablespoons mixed french herbs (CI recommends equal parts chervil, parsley, chives, tarragon)
- Bring the potatoes, water, and salt to a boil in a large saucepan, then reduce to a simmer. Skewer the garlic on a fork tine and lower it into the simmering water for about 45 seconds, then cool it under cold running water. Simmer the potatoes uncovered until they are tender, about 5 minutes. (A thin bladed paring knife should slip into and out of the potato slice with no resistance.) Drain the potatoes, reserving 1/3 cup cooking water. Arrange the potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet, ideally in a single layer.
- Mince the garlic, and combine in small bowl with the oil, reserved cooking water, vinegar, mustard, and pepper. Drizzle the dressing evening over the warm potato slices. Let stand for 10 minutes.
- Chop the shallots and herbs and toss them together in the vinaigrette bowl. Move the potatoes to a serving bowl, and add the shallot-herb mixture. Mix carefully.
My notes: My potatoes were a bit larger than called for and so my potato slices looked a bit large and awkward. I misread the recipe and accidentally added 1/2 cup of cooking water, so my salad was slightly wet, but still very tasty. I had white potatoes not red, and as a result the potato salad was not quite as pretty as it should have been. I couldn’t find fresh chervil or tarragon, so I used a little frozen box of minced “French herbs” that I bought in the grocery store. I added the herbs to the dressing before drizzling it over the potatoes, which seemed to work fine. I used a white balsamic vinegar, which tasted fine. Overall I thought the potato salad was very tasty, although perhaps just a tad too salty. My friend Alex really liked it–she said it was the best potato salad she’d ever had, and kept “encouraging” me to post the recipe. Derek and my mother were less enthusiastic. First of all, they argued that the recipe could not be called potato salad, perhaps because the potatoes were sliced instead of cubed. Also, they just thought the recipe was a bit boring. I thought it was delicious, however, and I’ll definitely make it again.
