Hummus and Greek Salad Dressing Recipe

If you like hummus and have never made it, please do yourself a favor and give it a try. It is so much better and cheaper than store bought. You could use a blender but I like using a food processor. Throw in garlic cloves. I am using three cans of beans in this recipe so I used 6-7 cloves of garlic.


Pulse this until the garlic is chopped into very small pieces.


Add a heaping teaspoon of sea salt. Pulse this again with the garlic.


Toast several teaspoons of cumin. I used about 5 teaspoons. When you smell the heavenly smell and it just begins to turn a bit darker, it is ready. Be careful not to let it burn. This step is important because it really brings out the flavor of the cumin.


Add the cumin to the garlic and salt mixture and pulse a couple times again.



Take a jar of tahini and add about 4 tablespoons of this to the processor. Tahini is sold in the Mediterranean section of the grocery store. It is like peanut butter but it is made with sesame seeds.


Pulse this for a second or two.


Add a bit of cayenne pepper.


I add just enough to enhance the flavor and not add heat.


Juice 3-4 lemons. This is a recipe of balance and a lot depends on how you like your hummus to taste. Add more or less garlic or lemon and taste as you go.


Pour the lemon in and pulse some more.


Then add the garbanzo beans. I added 3 cans. Reserve some of the liquid from the beans.



I like my hummus smooth and creamy. Some people like it a bit course. Again, you can decide how you prefer it. Add some of the reserved bean liquid as you are blending it to get the right consistency.


When finished, put it in a container and drizzle it with olive oil.


Greek Salad Dressing

I forgot to photograph a few steps in the dressing recipe but basically, I start out by putting the dry ingredients in a bowl and moistening them with water and allow them to sit for about 10 minutes. I've used garlic powder, salt and pepper, oregano, mint, dill and cumin. I use all dried ingredients which makes the dressing last longer than if you used fresh herbs and garlic.


Stir it around with about a half cup of water to make a paste.


This is part of the lineup. I use both red wine vinegar and balsamic and the juice of 3 lemons. I also add a bit of honey. Only about a tablespoon. This will not make it sweet but rather just cuts the bite from the acids. I put all of this in the processor and as it is running I add olive oil. I don't measure this. I make it to taste. The measurements depend on how much you are making.


I used about one and a half cups of the acidic ingredients and about 2 cups of olive oil.


I serve the hummus with pita, grape leaves, feta, Kalamata olives and slices of roasted red peppers.