Around My French Table: Hummus (and Pita Chips!)

New week, new cookbook!

I bought this cookbook because I fully intended to get involved in this fabulous online community called French Fridays with Dorie.  Every week, they make something out of this cookbook and then share their blog link on the French Fridays homepage.

Unfortunately, as it happens, life got in my way.  The job I had at the time didn’t allow me much money to buy a lot of the extra and random things needed for the recipes, and the project fell by the wayside. 

There are a couple recipes out of this cookbook that I love, and I’m finding more as I read through it again.  Today’s offering is hummus, which actually confused me at first, because. . .hummus isn’t French.  But who am I to question Dorie Greenspan?

Hummus

Adapted from Around My French Table
Serves 4-ish

Ingredients

• 1 can chickpeas (or garbanzo beans…they’re the same thing!), drained, but save the liquid.
• 2 split garlic cloves
• ¹/₃ cup tahini
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice (Fresh is better, but you know how it goes.)
• ¹/₄ tsp. cumin (Optional, but it really is better with the cumin.)
• Salt & pepper to taste
  

1. Put chickpeas, garlic, tahini, and lemon in a food processor and process until smooth.  Add the reserved liquid a little bit at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
2. Add cumin, salt, and pepper, and give it another whirl.
3. Put in a bowl covered in plastic wrap and chill until serving time.  (If you’re planning on eating it right away, just stick it in for 5-10 minutes.)

That’s it!

The pita chips are Dennis’ creation.  A few months back, we were having hummus and some other stuff for dinner, and I’d bought some pitas.  Dennis said, “I think I’ll make some pita chips out of these,” and I said, “I’ll just eat mine plain.”

About 10 minutes later, I was handing him my sad pita and saying, “Would you. . .make this into chips please?”

Here’s why:

Pita Chips

Serves: As many as you want as long as you have 1-2 pitas per person

Ingredients

• 2-10 pitas (again, it depends on how many chips you want and how many people you’re serving.)
• Olive oil
• Garlic salt (or regular salt if you’d prefer)
  
  

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Cut the pitas into triangles by cutting them in half, cutting those halves in half, etc. until you have the size and number of chips you want.
3. Place the chips on a foil-lined cookie sheet and spray with olive oil.  (You can also drizzle the oil, but I’ve found it’s much easier to spray them.)  Sprinkle with salt or garlic salt.
4. Bake for 5 minutes or until the edges toast to light brown.