Hummus is such an easy way to up your plant based protein intake. Chickpeas are a great source of vitamins and minerals, and have been shown to lower your cholesterol. You’ll notice I use bone broth in this recipe; you can use vegetable broth instead or indeed water. I always have bone broth in my fridge because I boil any bones that I can – roast chicken carcasses, lamb chops, any meat bones that I have cooked for my family. Bone broth is light in flavour and is texture free so doesn’t really change the taste of anything, but it is rich in minerals and protein including collagen. It is great for digestion, skin, immunity and general health. You can store it in the fridge for a week and I also freeze it in ice cube trays or baby weaning cubes. Read here how I make my plain bone broth. The bone broth prevents this recipe being vegan but I have put it in on purpose to make the point that you can use bone broth in place of water in any savoury dish, as I do. If you are vegetarian/vegan, use water or vegetable broth (the water from steamed or boiled vegetables).
Ingredients
2 cups cooked chick peas (ideally home cooked, but use a can or packet if you must)
1/4 cup (40ml) bone broth (or vegetable broth/water)
2 tbsp olive oil (I like cold pressed extra virgin)
2 tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste)
The juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Himalayan pink salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste). I like quite a lot of salt but I use as little as possible for my children; children these days get far too much salt for their kidneys to process.
Method
Put all the ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. Use as a dip for fresh crudités or topping for homemade bread and toast.
The yellow hummus below is roasted garlic turmeric hummus. Instead of adding two cloves of raw garlic to the mix, I have added a whole head of roasted garlic (brushed with oil, foiled and roasted in the oven at 250 degrees for 1.5 hours), plus 1 tsp of turmeric. This is an antioxidant, anticancer, antibacterial, antiviral OMG it’s winter hummus. Not as yummy as plain hummus but an interesting variation and I just don’t have time to get colds. This as a snack with a hot water/grated ginger/squeezed lemon drink is a powerful anti-cold remedy.
