Hummus and its variations

Ingredients:

14 oz canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans)—rinsed and drained
3-4 cloves garlic—roughly chopped
¼ cup lemon juice or lime juice
¼ cup water
½ cup Tahini
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ cup plain yogurt or sour cream
¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon of paprika
4 leaves of fresh mint

Method:
Place all ingredients in a food processor process until smooth, scraping the sides occasionally.

Variations:
• For spicy hummus, can add a small/med red chili (chopped) or a pinch of cayenne pepper, and a little cumin for a more exotic variation.
• For chunky veggie hummus dip may mix chopped onions, green onions, chopped tomatoes and of course Jalapenos to prepared hummus. This is to be served on the same day.
• For pine nut hummus can add ½ cup pine nuts to it, and garnish with pine nuts.
• For roasted red pepper hummus you can add 1 cup of roasted red pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil to it.
• For Jalapeno hummus can add 3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 2 jalapeno peppers and lime juice instead of lemon juice.
• For Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus add 2-3 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
• For Roasted garlic hummus double the amount of garlic and may roast it in EVO before adding.

Serve all kind of hummus with a little olive oil poured over it, sprinkle a little paprika and garnish with the main ingredient(for example if sun dried tomato sprinkle little sun dried tomatoes on it).

Tip: Prepare extra quantities of this hummus—it can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 1 week and frozen (all except chunky veggie one) for up to 3 months.

Recipe by Surekha

Photography by SummerTomato Darya Pino
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36842913@N08/3540099233/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en