Roasted Garlic Basil Hummus

Dear Friends,

Middle Eastern food has special place in my heart. My family love falafel. One of the dish I can’t get enough of is manakeesh zaatar. Whenever we go to middle eastern restaurant especially Lebanese, apart from ordering falafel, I have to order manakeesh with zaatar. It is like a pizza, zaatar spice spread on pita bread. The Lebanese restaurant we often go to, serves fresh oven baked pita (free) as soon as you sit. You just have to order hummus and you are good to go.

Hummus is so versatile. Everyone like hummus with pita but you can eat it with anything you like! Use as a dip with veggies, spread on toast, eat with tortilla chips, spread on pita sandwich or burritos or use for salad dressing. I make pita chips from store-bought pita and serve with hummus. Also hummus can be made with many variations. Plain hummus with chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and tahini or with sun-dried tomato or roasted garlic or basil. I decided to prepare hummus using both roasted garlic and sweet basil. To roast garlic, you can bake it in oven which takes about 45 minutes. I did not want to spend that much time so I roasted skinned garlic on pan with olive oil which took less than 5 minutes. Roasting garlic helps to remove raw garlic flavour. Chickpeas are high source of protein so it is an added bonus!

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: varies depending on how you cook chickpeas.

Ingredients:

1 cups dry chickpeas (garbanzo beans) soaked and boiled or you can use 2 cup canned chickpeas
1 cup sweet basil
5-6 garlic cloves
1 tsp dry roasted cumin seeds
2 tbsp tahini (sesame sauce)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste.

Procedure

1. Soak dry chickpeas 6-7 hours and cook it until it is soft or pressure cook until 4 whistles. You can also use canned chickpeas.

2. Peel garlic cloves, roast in pan with olive oil until cloves are slightly brown from sides.

3. To make tahini at home, blend roasted sesame seeds with olive oil till smooth.

4. In a blender/mixer, add sweet basil, roasted garlic, roasted cumin seeds, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Blend everything until it turn to smooth paste.

5. Then add boiled chickpeas in the same blender and make paste. Use temper to mix everything while blending. Add more olive oil or water to adjust the consistency of hummus. Hummus should be slightly coarse and smooth.

6. Hummus is now ready to serve. You can keep this in the fridge for up to a week, I am not sure it will last that long though 😉 :D. Sweet basil (my favourite herb) gives a wonderful fresh flavour to this hummus. Garlic enhances the flavour. Serve with pita or tortilla chips or as a dip with veggies.

Hope you will try this recipe! I am sure you will love it as we did!

Also let me know if you have any questions regarding the dish.

Thank you for stopping by 🙂 . Happy cooking!

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