Until recently. A friend brought over some home-made pitas and home-made hummus...and I could not believe how delicious it was. Like - possibly the best I've had...and I've tried a lot of different kinds over the years.
Shut up and get to the recipe, am I right???
Here it is:
Hummus
2 cloves of garlic
1 can of chick peas (drained, but save 1/4 cup of the liquid)
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of chickpea liquid
1 and 1/2 TBSP of Zatar (its a Lebanese seasoning - i think this is a key ingredient - I would have no idea what you could substitute for this!)
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup tahini (ground sesame seed paste)
1/8 cup of olive oil
Add all of this (except the olive oil!) to your food processor and process until well combined. Scrape down sides. Continue to process while adding the olive oil, and process until smooth and creamy. Sooo easy - and so delicious!
Now...I have to tell you...this is soooo good...and maybe takes 2 minutes to make. I don't think I'll be buying the store-bought kind again, honestly. You could probably experiment with different seasonings and additions to this...I likely will in the near future - but this is so awesome just as it is!
I also have the recipe for the pitas which are amazing...I made them last week, and also had some of the mini store-bought pitas - which have normally seemed fine - but tasted more like cardboard in comparison to the fresh home-made pitas. You will want to make these both on the same day...they will each be more enjoyable if you do! trust me.
Pitas:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 TBSP sugar
2 TBSP olive oil
~ Mix together in large bowl, then add approximately 3 cups of white flour (not all at once!). Start with 1 cup, then mix into your next cup of flour 2 tsp of Quick Rise Yeast and add, and your last cup. (less if too dry, a bit more if too wet). Mix with mixer as much of flour as you can, and stir with wooden spoon if too hard on your mixer. About 3 cups total flour.
Knead about 10 minutes onto floured counter - adding more flour as necessary if too sticky. Let rise in warm place (I usually turn my overn on at the beginning to about 200 degrees for like a minute, then turn it off) - in a large greased bowl, covered with a damp cloth - about 60-75 minutes, until doubled. Punch down, divide into 8 or 9 pieces. Let rest on counter for 10 minutes, covered with damp cloth so the dough doesn't become dry. Roll out 2 at a time on floured counter quite thin - put on heated cookie sheet in 500 degree oven - 3-5 minutes per side. Leave in oven when flipping (use long tongs). They will brown a bit. These are unbelievably yummy. Hope this recipe makes sense to you and you give them a try! You may never buy store-bought hummus or pitas again, though...
