Hummus Recipes

Don't buy ready-made hummus at the store. It's expensive, and usually not very fresh. Hummus is extremely versatile and you can mix just about anything with the base to create whatever flavor you want.

Here are some of our favorite hummus recipes. We'll add more as we come up with more. Please feel free to email your favorite recipe so we can try it.

Smoky Chipotle Hummus

Ingredients:

3 (15.5 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup tahini (sesame-seed paste)

1 lemon, juiced

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 chipotle peppers, canned (reserve some adobo sauce)
roasted red bell peppers (jarred works, do it yourself is better) 
5 cloves garlic

8-10 sun-dried tomatoes

pinch of salt
ground black pepper to taste
red pepper flake to taste

Directions 

Place the garbanzo beans, water, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, chipotle pepper, garlic, adobo sauce and cumin in the bowl of a food processor; blend until smooth. Add the red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, cilantro, salt, pepper and red pepper flake. Pulse the mixture until the ingredients are coarsely chopped into the hummus base. Transfer to a serving bowl, cover, and chill until ready to serve.

Sun-dried Tomato and Herb Hummus

Ingredients:

2 (15.5 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup tahini (sesame-seed paste)

1 lemon, juiced

2-1/2 tablespoons olive oil

Fresh basil, finely chopped

5 cloves garlic

12 Sun-dried tomatoes

pinch of salt

ground black pepper to taste

Directions 

Place the garbanzo beans, water, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor; blend until smooth. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, basil, salt, and pepper. Pulse the mixture until the ingredients are coarsely blended into the hummus base. Transfer to a serving bowl, cover, and chill until ready to serve.

Caramelized Onion Hummus

Ingredients:

2 (15.5 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup tahini (sesame-seed paste)

1 lemon, juiced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion, sliced
roasted red bell peppers (jarred works, do it yourself is better) 
1 bulb garlic, with cloves split length-wise
balsamic vinegar

pinch of salt
ground black pepper to taste
red pepper flake to taste

Directions 

Carmelize onion and garlic in olive oil. This will seem like a lot of onion and garlic, but caramelizing them really mellows out the flavor. Add balsamic vinegar when onions and garlic start to turn opaque. Saute till onions are soft. While cooking the onions, place the garbanzo beans, water, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil in food processor; blend until smooth. Add the salt, pepper and red pepper flake. Add the onions and garlic. Pulse the mixture until the ingredients are coarsely chopped into the hummus base. Transfer to a serving bowl, cover, and chill until ready to serve.

Spinach and Artichoke Hummus

Ingredients:

3 (15.5 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup tahini (sesame-seed paste)

1 lemon, juiced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 jar marinated artichoke hearts
1 cup julienned baby spinach
5 cloves garlic

pinch of salt
ground black pepper to taste

Directions 

Place the garbanzo beans, water, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic in a food processor; blend until smooth. Add the artichoke hearts, spinach, salt, and pepper. Pulse the mixture until the ingredients are coarsely chopped into the hummus base. Transfer to a serving bowl, cover, and chill until ready to serve.

We serve hummus with pita chips, but it's good with just about anything. Enjoy!

Pad Thai recipe

I’ve experimented with a couple of Pad Thai recipes and I’ve come up with that hits the sweet, sour and spicy notes that I love about Pad Thai. You can make this as spicy or as tame as you wish, simply by adding to the recipe, or taking away the hot stuff. It will still be good.

Ingredients

• 2 or 3 chicken breasts, depending on si
• 1 package rice noodles
• 6 Tbsp fish sauce - This is essential. I found a 16 oz bottle for $3 at a grocery store.
• 5 Tbsp rice wine vinegar - this adds the sour or acidic flavor
• 6 Tbsp soy sauce - I use the low sodium soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 3 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp Sriracha sauce - This is completely optional. I keep it around all the time and use it instead of Tabasco. It has a much better flavor and adds good heat.
• Lime - juiced
• Crushed red pepper - to taste
• Ginger - about 3 inches, grated
• Garlic - 5 cloves, minced
• Red bell pepper, julienned
• Cabbage - I use Napa, but green or red cabbage will do. It adds texture. Whichever you use, slice it thin. Use as much or as little as you want, but I always use a lot.
• Green onions - a whole bunch, lop off the white part and dice them. Coarse cut the green part
• 2 eggs beaten
• Shrimp - a small package of salad shrimp will do, but you can use any kind
• Peanuts - crushed

Prep the Chicken

I start off by baking the chicken breasts. It takes about 45 minutes if you use the IQF breasts, or 20 minutes if they’re already thawed. You can do this whenever you have time and set aside the breasts so they’re easier to handle. Slice the chicken fairly thin.

Make the Sauce

In a small bowl, add fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, sugar, peanut butter, soy sauce, Sriracha sauce, lime juice and crushed red pepper. Stir with a fork until peanut butter is liquefied. Set aside.

Prep the Vegetables

Grate the ginger. Mince the garlic. Julienne the bell peppers. Dice the white parts of the green onions. Slice the cabbage.

Make the Noodles

Boil water in a saucepan big enough for the rice noodles. When water boils, remove from heat and add noodles. Let them soak for 8 minutes and drain.

Heat the Wok

I recommend wok oil. You can use vegetable oil, but I don’t recommend olive oil because the temperature gets too high. Let it get good and hot. Medium high (7 or 8 setting) for a good 10 minutes to get it hot enough.

Note: Don’t worry if you don’t have a wok. Use a dutch oven or big saute pan.

Putting the Pad Thai together

1. Add ginger, garlic, red bell pepper and white parts of the onions and saute for a minute or so. Then push this up the side of the wok to get away from direct heat.

2. Add beaten eggs and cook all the way through. Then slice up the eggs and combine with vegetables.

Key: Cook the eggs without getting anything in them if possible. This keeps the eggs from acting as a thickening agent and lets them do what they’re supposed to do; keep everything separated. 

3. Add cabbage and green onions.

4.  Add chicken, shrimp and noodles and combine.

Key: You can make it spicier by adding crushed red pepper here.

5. Add sauce and combine. Keep the whole thing moving to marry all the flavors.

Serve

Add some crushed peanuts. This adds texture and flavor.

This will serve four with enough for leftovers. Making Pad Thai is fairly involved, but it will go easy and quickly if you prep everything beforehand. The second time you make it, you’ll knock it out it no time.