By the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you have had a wonderful start to your 2018. I’ve been busy cooking up lots of Mediterranean-themed recipes to kick off the year with some really healthy and delicious recipes. I’ll be posting them all through the month of January, starting with this delicious hummus! The Mediterranean Diet has long been touted as the healthiest overall diet there is, and again came in at the number one spot according to US News. While I personally think each individual has different needs that can be met with different kinds of foods, I love that the Mediterranean Diet is basically just eating whole foods and real ingredients (which is the basis for this blog!).
The Mediterranean Diet consists of lots of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, seafood, legumes, nuts, and healthy fats like olive oil. Oh, and a little red wine is fine too! It tends to stay away from red meat, dairy, and poultry, but also doesn’t completely omit them (which I love- I hate strict diet rules and can NEVER follow them). You could technically follow the rules of this diet with foods from regions other than the Mediterranean. But when I think of Italy, Greece, Morocco, Israel, Southern France and Spain… all I can think about is the delicious cuisine that comes with them! I’m just as excited about the delicious flavors of the Mediterranean as I am about all the healthy ingredients. I hope you continue to follow along in January for more Mediterranean inspiration!
Traditionally, hummus is made from chickpeas that have been soaked, cooked, and – this is the hard part – removing the skin from EACH INDIVIDUAL BEAN before mixing together. I’ve tried this method before and I have to say- I don’t believe it’s worth the extra time and labor involved. You can easily use canned chickpeas with their skins intact as a shortcut, with a few tricks help emulsify it to make it ultra smooth and creamy.
I can’t BELIEVE I don’t already have a simple, easy classic hummus recipe on the blog already! I have roasted garlic and lemon hummus, roasted sweet potato hummus, and sweet and spicy sriracha carrot hummus. All of these are delicious and you should totally make them. For a non-chickpea version, try this frozen pea purée/hummus. But this classic hummus is SO easy and has such few ingredients – just chickpeas, fresh lemon juice, garlic, tahini (which can easily be substituted with almond or peanut butter), and olive oil, with cumin and kosher salt for seasoning. You already probably have most of these things in your pantry. I used a food processor to make this, but if you don’t have one, you can use a blender. The trick to making it smooth and creamy is to slowly drizzle the liquids in while the machine is running, helping to emulsify it (see more about this in the recipe below). Use this hummus in this Mediterranean Seven Layer Dip or on veggie wraps! Here’s the printable recipe for this super quick and easy classic hummus recipe!
