Hummus is one dish that I fell in love with when I first tasted it. It’s a common dish in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. "Hummus" is Arabic for chickpea, which is the main ingredient for the dish "hummus", along with lemon, garlic and tahini (sesame paste). It has a rich taste and is full of protein, iron and Vitamin C. It can be eaten as dip with raw vegetable sticks and it also goes well with pita bread and tortilla. In Sweden, we have so many types of hard bread and hummus quickly becomes our "spread" when we eat it. It's much healthier then the normal spread, which is butter or olive oil.

If you want to cook your own beans, note that raw chickpeas can take a long time to be ready. I recommend cans or cartons. (as we have them in cartons in Sweden!)

Hummus is one of the oldest foods and dates back to the 13th century when it first appeared in a cook book in Egypt. Isn’t it amazing to think that after all these years people are still eating it? ;-)

Kitchen Gadgets: Food Processor

Ingredients

• 1 can of chickpeas, about 400g
• 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp (30ml) tahini or natural sesame paste
• 2 cloves of garlic
• pinch of sea salt
• parsley and paprika to sprinkle

Instructions

1. Rinse the canned chickpeas well then drain.
2. Put everything into the food processor and process until smooth. If you don’t have a food processor you can use a potato masher or even a fork although it would take a bit more time and effort. :P
3. Garnish with parsley and paprika. Serve!