Hummus
Who doesn’t love a creamy hummus to spread on bread or just have it as a side with your prepared dinner. Hummus is a tasty, healthy spread that you can easily flavour with anything that you have got in your vegetable box. It is also something that seems to be child friendly, so it's a vegan healthy spread that everyone can enjoy. The other use we have found for left over hummus (which rarely happens!) is to add it to a soup to add flavour and a creamy base stock.
Chickpeas or Garbanzo beans are a great source of vitamins, fibre and minerals. They are high in protein. You can get a red, black or brown variety of chickpea, put the beige legume is the one that is most commonly used. Making your own hummus is easy. Following our recipe is the perfect way to kick start your Veganuary and plunge into a more plant based diet
When you buy Hummus from a shop it is often highly packaged within a plastic container with an added plastic seal. When you make your own you can also feel safe in knowing that there are no additives and you are not contributing to more single use plastic, great for you and great for the environment.
For the ultimate fast food we have included a tin or can of chickpeas in our hummus recipe. At MoaAlm, when we are making large quantities of hummus we will often soak the dried chickpeas overnight and then cook them for around two hours. You can then follow the recipe as normal. If you are using a tin of chickpeas, just be careful to check the ingredients. There are some tins or cans that have lots of added sugar and sodium as a preservative. It’s worth buying a healthy variety of tinned chickpea.
If you have never tried chickpeas before, we would recommend adding them gently to your daily diet. Due to the complex sugars, they can cause a mild stomach bloating and intestinal gas. Don’t let this put you off trying them however, as the health benefits of this super food is worth the effort. We would suggest maybe not starting with a daily routine of hummus for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Your stomach and your close friends would appreciate a more gentle introduction!
At MoaAlm we like our hummus with roasted beetroot or peppers. We are equally happy to add fresh spinach or have plain hummus with extra lemon.
So here is the very basic easy recipe for your perfect hummus.
To make a jar of hummus you will need:
1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 medium-to-large clove garlic, roughly chopped
½ teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
½ cup tahini
2 to 4 tbsp water or non-dairy milk, more as needed
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup lemon juice more to taste if you prefer
If you decide to flavour it with beetroot, then roast a small beetroot, likewise with the peppers, we normally use one yellow and one red pepper to get the sweetness in our hummus. If you decide to use spinach, then just add 250g of fresh baby spinach leaves.
To make hummus all you need is to add all the ingredients together to your blender and add more water if needed for creamier consistency. Easy!
At MoaAlm we love our hummus at breakfast and so do our guests! A slice of toast with beetroot hummus, a handful of rucola and a grind of black pepper is a more better and sustainable start to the day than avocado on toast
What different flavours do you add to you hummus? We’d love to you to share your ideas with us…..
For other spread ideas, check out Savoury Breakfast Spreads on our website