I'm Empress. Happy New Year! I am a stay-at-home parent to 3 wonderful little monsters, a part time student, and novice to the world of good food. My friend Venus (below) and I decided to start a joint blog to document our efforts to feed our families a healthy, affordable vegetarian diet and not lose our minds in the process. I became interested in vegetarianism when my youngest child was born and had some obvious issues with digesting the transferred milk proteins in my breastmilk, so I had to cut out ALL dairy. Right down to reading labels making sure there were minute amounts of dairy in the ingredients. It was a big transition for me to go from my free-wheeling Standard American Diet full of Coke and Big Macs to scanning labels and eating whole foods because they were the safest. No wonder I am so fat. But I digress.

During my dairy restricted diet I started using vegan cookbooks, and that led to me reading about animal rights and environmental issues, and eventually it came down to the fact that I am big softie inside and I don't want to contribute to any animals being mistreated or harmed. I am not vegan yet, and I can eat some dairy now but I am always actively working to reduce my reliance on animal products as much as possible. And maybe get healthier and less fat in the process.

Our idea for this blog is to post alternately about one vegetarian meal a day. It could be a recipe we've created or adapted, a review of a product, or a recipe from a cookbook and our thoughts on it. We want to show people that a busy mom (or dad!) can transition their families to a healthy vegetarian diet without wasting a ton of money or time in the kitchen cooking "weird" food no one will eat.

V wrote a nice little write up below so she could introduce herself. Tomorrow she will share her post, and off we go!

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I'm Venus, I'm a homeschooling mom of 2. Almost a year ago my soft-hearted 8 year old daughter came to me with tears in her eyes and told me she didn't want to hurt animals anymore by eating them. In my pre-child life I had actually spent 2 and a half years as a vegetarian so the idea wasn't shocking. So we began adapting a few meals and trying to keep her healthy while still being a meat eating family. In November some health issues popped up for me and since I'm not jazzed about the idea of surgery I decided to cut meat out of my diet. The big shock came when my dear husband took it to the next step and said we should all eat vegetarian, at least at home. So we are muddling our way through new cookbooks and recipes and dragging you along with us for the ride.

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For my very first blog post of this year I wanted to something near and dear to me. Hummus. Yes, hummus. I fell in love with the stuff when I was a teenager growing up in a college town, and I haven't fallen out of love with it. It's cheap, versatile, healthy, and just good. My oldest daughter likes to daintily dab points of pita bread in it while my husband and I just gob it on as much as possible. We have no shame for our hummus loving and neither should you. I hope you enjoy.

HUMMUS! Tutorial
About 3 cups.
I say this is a tutorial instead of a recipe because it is more of a guideline on how to get the hummus of your dreams instead of a hard and fast recipe you must follow exactly. It is incredibly flexible, and pretty much embodies how I approach cooking.

First, you need chickpeas. You can start with dry chickpeas or canned.

For dry: You need about 1 1/3 cup dried if you want 3 cups cooked. Make sure to soak them the night before or at least 12 hours. Rinse and drain the now soaked chickpeas, supposedly doing so cuts the fart factor. I have not conducted any scientific testing of my own to verify this, but besides it cuts down on cooking. Place the chickpeas in a deep pot and cover with water. Bring to a nice rolling boil, then lower the heat to a gentle simmer and cover. Cook them until really soft, anywhere from an hour and half to over 2 hours. You want to be able to easily squish a bean with a fork. After they’re done cooking throw in a teaspoon of salt, stir and let cool for at least 15 minutes. Scoop out at least a cup of the bean broth and set aside. That bean broth is some good stuff. Drain the beans and measure out approximately 1 ½ cups to 2 cups, we don’t have to be exact here. Any extra you can refrigerate or freeze, there are tons of things you can do with them but we can get into that later. Of course, you can save all of this trouble and go right to canned chickpeas.

For canned: Canned chickpeas are a little saltier and a little more tender, they puree down to a smoother texture. It really is your call. Do save the bean broth in the can before rinsing the beans, you’ll still need it, unless it icks you out, then you can substitute a mild vegetable broth like Imagine No-Chicken broth. Use one can of chickpeas for this recipe.

So you have your chickpeas all ready to go. Now, dump them in a food processor. A food processor is really the way to go here, but if you only have a blender you’re going to have to do this in 2 batches. The chickpeas are just sitting there ready and waiting, now add a spoonful of tahini. You can use anywhere from ¼ to ½ cup of tahini, using less gives the hummus a subtle flavor, using more gives the hummus a “HI, I AM TAHINI, NICE TO MEET YOU” flavor. I prefer the subtle, so I take a large spoon and just scoop about a glob and dump it on the chickpeas. Next, take a couple of lemons, squeeze the hell out of them, and add the juice to the chickpea mixture. You can always add more lemon juice, but you can’t take away so go easy. Same with salt, start off with a ½ tsp of kosher salt. Add a nice fat teaspoon of ground cumin. If you like fresh ground pepper, add a couple of turns to it. Finally drizzle in a single tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Some recipes call for much more, but I don’t find the flavor or texture is improved with more, and keeping it relatively low-fat keeps my gallbladder happy, the cantankerous bastard.

Note about garlic. Garlic is tricky. Pureed raw garlic can take an odd, metallic taste. If it doesn’t bother you or you don’t believe me, go ahead and add a couple of cloves minced or pressed. Or you could roast a garlic head and add a couple of cloves that way. Or you could totally cheat and you use garlic powder. It really is up to you. I love garlicky hummus but I can’t take the rawness of it but I am too lazy to roast it, so I sauté up a couple of minced cloves for a few minutes in the extra virgin olive oil over low heat until golden brown and add it when I would add the olive oil.

You got everything in there, the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, salt, pepper, cumin, olive oil and the garlic. Pulse your food processor a couple of times until the mixture looks like chunky applesauce. Now turn it on and continually process while you drizzle in the bean broth or vegetable broth a tablespoon at a time. Stop when it looks creamy. Take a spoon and do the test. It should be like thick yogurt; thin enough to easily stir with a spoon but thick enough to stay mostly on an upside down spoon.

Taste for seasonings. What does it need? Does it need more salt? Does it need more tahini? More lemon juice? Only you can know. A couple drops of toasted sesame oil can be a nice touch. Do you want some heat? Add a pinch or two of cayenne. Add whatever you feel it is lacking, but just a small amount. I reiterate, you can always add more but you can't take away if you overseason. Another ½ tsp of kosher salt or 1 more juiced lemon. Now process again to combine. Taste again. Is it good? Then you’re all done.

And there you have it. Hummus! To serve spoon an amount into a shallow bowl and smooth the top. Drizzle on a scant teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with cumin and maybe a little cayenne. If you feel fancy you can mince up some fresh parsley and sprinkle on top. Serve with warm fresh pita, crackers, and/or cut up fresh vegetables. I love bell pepper strips dipped in hummus.

Store the leftover hummus in a sealed container, it keeps well for about 3-5 days.

I will post pics soon! Promise!

Basic Hummus recipe
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2-4 minced garlic cloves
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (if using canned, 1 15 ounce can and drain and reserve bean broth)
1/2 -1 cup reserved bean broth or vegetable broth (I recommend Imagine No-Chicken Broth)
1/4-1/2 cup tahini
juice of 2 lemons
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon ground cumin
fresh ground black pepper to taste

In a small skillet heat olive oil over medium heat, when hot add minced garlic and carefully saute until garlic is golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Set aside.
In a food processor place chickpeas, tahini, lemon, juice, salt, cumin, black pepper, and olive oil/garlic mixture. Pulse several times until mixture is a chunky puree. Turn processor on, and drizzle a spoonful of bean or vegetable broth at a time until mixture is smooth and creamy. Adjust seasonings to taste, and enjoy!