Em was up at the cabin last week with her friend, Eunice, and I was delighted to be able to cook for them. Eunice, who has been Em’s best friend since kindergarten, is HIGHLY satisfying to cook for because she loves to eat and isn’t in the least bit fussy. Indeed, when Em (the eternally fussy eater) was in elementary school, she’d often come home from school to tell me that she couldn’t eat the lunch I’d packed her.

“Soooo….what did you do with it?” I’d ask.

“Oh, I gave it to Eunice,” she’d invariably reply.

In any event, Eunice asked for my hummus recipe, and I was shocked to realize I’ve never posted it on my blog (likely because I make it so often that I don’t even measure anything). So I’m posting it here for Eunice….

Basic Hummus

Throw the following in a food processor:

• 1 can drained chickpeas
• 6(ish) cloves of garlic
• 1 heaping TBS tahini (I just use a big soup spoon full of this stuff)
• 6 capfuls of lemon juice (I make it so often that I’m too lazy to get out the tablespoon)
• 1 tsp Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base (if you don’t have this, just add some salt)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (optional, but gives it a nice smokey flavour)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne (optional, but gives it a bit of heat)
• water (you decide how much)
• freshly ground pepper
• salt to taste

Here’s the trick to good hummus: you have to blend the crap out of it. Turn the blender on and go do your shopping.

Well, not quite, but you want it SMOOTH, so you need to leave that blender on forEVER. Once it’s super smooth, check the texture: if you like your hummus thinner (which I do), add a bit of water (or the drained bean juice) until it’s the consistency you like.

Then blend it like hell again. Check it for saltiness and add more salt if you need to!