Hummus is Yummus - Plus The Big Girls

I have a feeling about hummus. 

My feeling is that people have pretty strong feelings about hummus. 

Love it or hate it. Plain or flavored. Thick or thin. Store bought or homemade.

Around here, hummus is a family affair. My girls send me things like this....

and this from Reagan....

The bottom line is this - so much hummus, so little time. 

So let's talk hummus.

I'm pretty particular about what makes a really good hummus. 

I'll eat store bought hummus in a pinch but I really prefer making it myself. Thankfully, it's a quick and easy process so a craving can be satisfied in a snap.

So how do I like my hummus?

Thick, smooth and creamy. Not watery, grainy or pasty.

Now here's where we might part ways - I like my hummus plain, thankyouverymuch.

And here's why:  

Because I'm thinking beyond the pita chip/hummus combo, not that there is one single thing wrong with that.

But when I make homemade hummus, I'm eating it with all these little goodies. And I don't want roasted red pepper or olive tapenade or jalapeño or basil pesto or anything else overpowering my tasty little dip combos.

My favorite things to serve with my plain hummus are finely diced tomatoes and cucumbers, kalamata olives, goat cheese, carrot sticks and naan. 

After several average recipes and some downright duds, I finally found Favorite Homemade Hummus with Spiced Pita Chips at Sally's Baking Addiction. 

Side note here - Sally makes her own pita chips. Woah, Sally. I'm doing good to make the hummus right now. Baby steps. 

One more side note here - Sally's food photography is beautiful. Mine is lame. But I have never claimed to be any kind of photographer. So whatever.

A few helpful homemade hummus making tips:

I use no salt added chickpeas simply because I want to control the amount of salt in my hummus. Not because I'm a control freak but simply because it can easily get too salty for me. I buy this brand:

I also peel all those little chickpeas, which sounds a lot harder than it actually is. The skins basically slip right off so it only adds another minute or so to your prep time.

Next, put all the liquids together and make an emulsion. So if you're using the recipe I'm sharing here, you'd first combine the olive oil, lemon juice, chickpea liquid, and tahini, whirring it up until it's smooth and creamy. 

And last, once you add the remaining ingredients to your emulsion, get it super smooth. We're not going for grainy bean dip here. I've discovered that when making humus, my food processor just doesn't get the job done. I use my Ninja Master Prep blender/food processor combo and it works great. I whirl it around several times, pausing every now and then to scrape down the sides with a spatula.

Downright tasty stuff. 

courtesy of greatest.com 

Now for a little something that has absolutely nothing to do with hummus.

My big girls have always had some slight similarities when it comes to the resemblance department. But no one ever really said how much they looked alike when they were little bitties. 

Actually, what we heard most often was how much Ryley looked like her dad and how much Reagan looked like me.

But the funny thing is... as they have gotten older, they seem to be looking more alike. 

Which I did not really expect.

But then Reagan put these two pictures side by side:

And. Well. Gosh.

I then promptly sent it to Ryan with the caption:

"That moment when you realize they may not wear matching clothes anymore... but they still match."

And my heart melted just a little bit.

Because. Well. 

Gosh.