Hummus and Pita Chips

When I bought some cumin, there was a recipe for hummus on the side, so I couldn’t resist.  I’d already gotten the idea to make homemade pita chips the week before, so that sealed the deal.  This recipe is courtesy of McCormick.

Hummus

Ingredients:

• 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Drain chickpeas, reserving 1/4 cup of the liquid.
2. Place chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, cumin, red pepper and salt in food processor; cover. Process until smooth, scraping down sides as necessary.
3. Add reserved liquid; process until smooth.

Substitutions:

The recipe on the side of the bottle was a little different than the one listed on the McCormick website, probably just amended for the amount of space available.  The website says you can use crushed red pepper instead of ground.  The website also says to drizzle with a Tbsp of olive oil once it’s all blended, which wasn’t in the short version.

Outcome:

Quite tasty.  The short version of the recipe said to add the reserved liquid until you’d reached the desired consistency, but I used every drop and wished I’d reserved a little more.  Overall, this is a very simple recipe for a very tasty dip.

Pita Chips

This is so simple that it’s more of an idea than a recipe.  All you really do is get some pita bread, brush it with olive oil, sprinkle it with a little garlic powder and some grated parmesan cheese (the kind in the green can), cut it up with a pizza cutter and stick the pieces in the oven until they’re crispy, about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Keep an eye on them so they don’t get overdone, but there’s not a lot you can do wrong here. 

I read one “recipe” for these that said you could use butter flavored cooking spray instead of olive oil, which would have been even easier.  I might try that next time.

Overall outcome:

Pita chips and the hummus go great together.  I only made a half a package of the pita bread (3 big pieces) and that was about right for one batch of the hummus.  This combination is a great snack either for just having on reserve in the fridge or for a get together.  It’s easy to make and is a delicious, healthy alternative to a lot of other dips.