Toasted Sunflower Seed and Chick Pea Hummus Recipe

This is how a make a great tasting hummus with my pantry staples. While I cooked most of the ingredients in this recipe, I am sure they will be fine raw too.  The toasting makes everything more flavourful.

Ingredients

·        2 cans of chick peas (garbanzo beans) with the liquid reserved from one can

·        2 cloves of garlic, peeled & sliced

·        1 cup of raw sunflower seeds

·        2 tablespoons of olive oil

·        ¼ teaspoon of rice wine vinegar (optional)

You will also need a large frying pan and a high-speed blender (like a Vitamix or similar)

1.     Keep the liquid of one can of chick peas aside, but then rinse & drain the chick peas from both cans.

2.     Begin by warming 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan (the 2^nd tablespoon will be used later) on your stovetop. I suggest medium high.  Now comes the tricky part, this is a method of taking the frying pan on and off the burner so that none of the ingredients burn.

3.     While on the burner add the garlic to the fry pan but as the one side begins to brown, take the frying pan off the burner and turn over the pieces (either with a silicone spatula or tongs). The hot oil will continue to cook the other side. Then stir so that the garlic is now flavoring the oil.

4.     Return the frying pan to the burner & ad the sunflower seeds, constantly stirring for about a minute and then take the frying pan off the burner but keep stirring until the seeds have stopped cooking.  Now your kitchen should smell delicious with the smell of toasted sesame seeds and garlic.

5.     Add the drained chick peas to the pan and return to the heat, but keep stirring the sesame/garlic mixture up from the bottom of the pan.  Do this for about 2 minutes.  This won’t toast the chick peas, but it will get rid of the raw flavour.  Again, remove from the heat and keep stirring until the pan is no longer cooking the items.

6.     Next carefully ladle the mixture into the blender, as the ingredients will be very warm.  Then pour the reserved liquid from the can of chick peas into the blender.

7.     Begin to mix on low and gradually increase the speed.  You may have to turn the blender off and tamper it a bit (or push down the ingredients with a spatula).  I do this with the blender off to be on the safe side.

8.     Once it is combined, add the remaining olive oil and rice wine vinegar.  Blend on high until desired consistency.

9.     Remove lid from blender and allow to cool for about 10 mins before putting it into containers for refrigerating or freezing.

RECIPE TIP

Did you know you can freeze hummus? It won’t have the same zing as your fresh batch, but it’s great to have it ready to go for your lunch.  When thawing frozen hummus, stir it really well as it will be a little watery on the top.

Want to know how to incorporate it into a healthy lunch? Check out my BENTO BOX idea post at https://stufftodowithyourkidsinkw.blogspot.com/2018/12/start-2019-with-healthy-lunches-thanks.html

So enjoy your HUMmus with these 30 songs with HUMMING in them