Chickpea Hummus

Hummus is one of the most wonderful and simple dishes to complete a fresh-vegie meal! And so many hummus variations are possible to complement the vegies or chips or breads. One drawback of hummus, though, is that chickpeas can be very moldy, so my mom taught me a couple little tricks for eliminating some of that mold. The first is to carefully rinse and then soak the chickpeas overnight in clean water. Pour the discolored and potentially mold-polluted water off in the a.m. and then put in a slow-cooker covered with more fresh water and turn the cooker on high. One to one-and-a-half hours later, depending on the slow-cooker, the chickpeas will have warmed quite a lot and released more of their mold. Pour off that water, rinse the chickpeas and then put more water on and slow-cook them until they are done. It sounds complicated, but really the machinery is doing all the work. My mom and dad have found that they are less gassy when they cook their beans and chickpeas this way. And wowzer, it's true. I'm much less likely to feel any tightness in my throat after eating chickpeas prepared this way. 

 

Hummus variations!

The best hummus is made with hot chickpeas right out of the slow-cooker.



chickpeas, wedge of onion, garlic cloves, ginger chunk, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, sea salt
 

 

chickpeas, coconut oil (sweeter than olive oil), ginger, sea salt
BTW, the chips are Beanitos, a black bean chip and are wonderfully candida-friendly (remember moderation though!)

chickpeas, cumin, turmeric, olive oil or coconut oil, onion wedge, garlic cloves, sea salt
This hummus would be even better with avocado wedges on top!