Vitamix Tales: Hummus

I stepped outside of my Vitamix 'comfort zone' the other day and whipped up some hummus. I was determined to do this on the cheap, so I measured out a cup of dried chick peas and cooked them up, used ingredients I already had in my cupboard.

It was so easy and the number of ingredients so modest, I was a bit skeptical, but the end product was fantastic and tasted like...wait for it...hummus! And it cost a mere fraction of the prepared stuff I usually buy at the supermarket.

I took the recipe from the Vitamix cookbook, then modified and pimped it up.

Here's the blueprint:

2 cups of cooked Chickpeas (or one 16 oz can)
1 cup of water
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 garlic glove
1 teaspoon cumin
sea salt to taste

I had to add some additional water to bring it to the desired consistency because I used a bit more tahini. I actually waited to add salt until after the blending process (and mixed it into the hummus in a bowl) so I could get it just right. I halved the original recipe to make a smaller amount of hummus - I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to eat a huge batch. But I would definitely prepare a larger amount if I was taking a bowl of it to a party, for example.

Here is the end result:

And it tastes great! It's every bit as good as the atrociously expensive stuff I buy at the store. I crunched the numbers and discovered that in hummus-preparation alone, the Vitamix pays for itself in less than two years (based on the estimated cost of weekly hummus at supermarket prices, around $6-7 per tub).

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad