Making hummus is easy...

I've always heard that making homemade hummus is easy. Recently I found out that making hummus actually is easy... assuming you have the right recipe and the right tools. I found a recipe online that was supposed to be easy and delicious. I got all of my ingredients, put them in my little immersion blender and started to blend. I first noticed that there was definitely not enough liquid for everything to blend properly. It was just a chopped up chickpea mess. So I added more olive oil and lemon juice. Still not enough liquid. I kept adding more but it wasn't working out for me. 

After struggling to get everything pureed, I decided it was time to drag out the heavy duty food processor. SO much easier! It took about 30 seconds to get the right texture! At least we're on the right track now. But, it tasted overwhelmingly like tahini - which basically tastes like peanut butter, but a really gross peanut butter. I decided to add another can of chickpeas, about 5 more cloves of garlic, and salt to taste. The end product was excellent - much better (and cheaper) than store bought. Even my 18 month old couldn’t get enough of it. This is probably something I’ll never buy again because once you have all the ingredients (and use the food processor), it cannot be any simpler. You literally just have to combine the ingredients and puree them… that’s it!

I used the same ingredients as the original recipe but these are the measurements I actually used:

2 can of chickpeas (drained)

⅓ cup tahini

½ cup olive oil

5 cloves garlic (suggest roasting first, otherwise the raw garlic taste may be overpowering)

¼ cup lemon juice

salt to taste

Combine in food processor and puree. 

Let Me Upgrade You

I love making “Indian fusion” dishes. When my sister and I stumbled upon a recipe for Bombay Sloppy Joes on the Food Network website, we were intrigued. There were dozens of comments raving about the recipe.

From the get go, it wasn’t going well for me. We were making 4x the recipe since we had 4 lb of turkey but, I forgot to get 4x all the other ingredients. I had only 1 can of tomato sauce (not 4) but I did find crushed tomato with basil. Not exactly Indian, but that’s ok. It could be an Indian-Italian-American fusion dish, I was ok with that. We omitted the pistachios, and raisins.

We didn’t start cooking the meat in a pan big enough, so it took forever. Half way through, we put it in our cast iron dutch oven. We were supposed to cook the sauce for a few minutes until it thickened. Except… it never thickened. After an hour of trying to cook it down, we had to go to my husband ask him to save our dish. He ended up scooping out a ton of the excess sauce/water, adding ketchup (what?!) and a bunch of other spices. He was very mad scientist, throwing in various powders and sauces.

The sloppy joes tasted ok, but not overwhelmingly Indian, even though we added way more spices, cilantro, and peppers than the recipe asked for.

Two days later, no one wanted to eat the leftovers, so I decided to transform it into a chili. I added a can of black beans, more jalapenos, more paprika and spices. The chili ended up being a hit! It was really flavorful and the beans helped thicken it. My husband and my 18-month old ate 2 bowls each. You know it’s good when the baby won’t stop eating it :)

In the end the sloppy joes were mediocre, but the chili was a keeper.

Original recipe in case this blog made you want to try it (although I wouldn't if I were you): http://www.pinterest.com/pin/419749627745179913/