How to make a Hummus Salad

Hummus is a traditional salad in many Middle Eastern nations. There are many variations and many ways to eat it. Hummus is most frequently eaten as a dip with warm pita bread.You can eat hummus with various other foods in a pita sandwich. Typical examples are felafel balls (deep-fried chick pea balls), schwarma (thin slivers of grilled meats) or simply with French fries.This recipe serves 6 to 8 people as an appetizer.

Things You'll Need

• 15 oz canned ready-to-eat chick peas
• 1 cup concentrated tehini
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 5 cloves of garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• Paprika
• Dry parsley flakes or minced parsley stems
• Pita wedges
• Food processor

Instructions

Hummus salad - a traditional Mediterranean dip

1. Strain the chick peas, saving the fluids.

2. Put the chick peas, water, lemon juice, cumin, salt, garlic cloves, and 1/2 cup of fluids from the chick pea can in the food processor.

3. Run the food processor until the contents appear to be uniform. At this point the mix may appear somewhat grainy.

4. Add the raw tehini to the food processor and run for several minutes until the mix appears uniform and creamy.

5. Chill the hummus in the fridge overnight to allow the flavors to meld.

6. Place 2 tablespoons of the hummus in each plate, pushing with the spoons outwards from the middle to create a depression in the middle.

7. Add another 1/2 tablespoon of the mix in the middle of the depression.

8. Pour a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil around the middle mound of hummus but inside the outer rim of hummus you formed in step 6.

9. Sprinkle the parsley flakes or minced fresh parsley over the olive oil.

10. Sprinkle paprika around the rim of hummus providing some color to the dish. The flavor of the hummus will drown out the paprika, but that's fine since this is just decoration.

11. Serve with warm pita wedges on the side.

Tips & Warnings

• You can build on this basic recipe by adding pine-nuts as garnish. Other possible garnishes include crushed fresh garlic, hot sauce, cooked fava beans, etc.

• You can also replace the central mound of hummus from step 7 with some tehini, though this should not be raw, but rather ready-to-eat tehini. Tehini is a sort of butter made from sesame seeds. The ready-to-eat one is mixed with water and some lemon juice, and may have some herbs mixed in.

• Some people with food allergies may need to avoid this salad, especially if you add pine nuts. Make sure the people you're serving are aware of the contents.