Hummus Recipe Ingredients Garlic Cloves,

¶ … Hummus Recipe

INGREDIENTS

garlic cloves, mashed and then minced

15-oz cans of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed

2/3 cup of tahini (roasted, not raw)

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Pine nuts (toasted) and parsley (chopped) for garnish

In a food processor, combine the garlic, garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, 1/2 cup water, and olive oil. Process until smooth. Add salt, starting at a half a teaspoon, to taste.

Spoon into serving dish and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and chopped parsley.

Serve with crackers, raw dip vegetables such as carrots or celery, or with pita bread. You can cut the pita bread into thin triangles, brush with olive oil and toast for 10 minutes in a 400°F oven to make pita chips with which to serve the hummus.

Makes about 3 cups.

To: My Boss

Date: 14 February 2012

Subject: Recently Published Hummus Recipe

As a culinary publication company, it is our mission to strive for the utmost in perfection regarding all published recipes. Last night I had the most unfortunate task of testing and verifying a recently published recipe on the site, specifically, the Hummus Recipe. Having lived in Turkey for the duration of my childhood and enjoyed hummus on a regular basis, I must address the inaccuracy and failure of this recipe to portray culinary perfection. This hummus recipe is lacking in flavor, texture and garnish.

Flavor

True Middle Eastern hummus recipes rarely use raw garlic. It is much more common to utilize roasted or saute garlic. These techniques are well established within the culinary disciplines to remove the bitterness of the garlic and replace it with a sweet yet pungent overtone. Without this overtone, the garlic exists in a manner similar to some Italian recipes, not Middle Eastern.

Additionally, the recipe listed includes much too high of an amount of tahini. Tahini has a strong flavor in hummus, and in this case, overrides the flavor of the garlic as well as the fresh flavor of the lemon juice.

Texture

After completing the hummus according to the listed directions and tasting the first bite, I nearly spit the hummus back out. The texture was completely wrong. The reason for the wrong texture is once again an ingredient. In Middle Eastern Hummus preparation, the garbanzo beans are cooked fresh for hummus. The practice produces a much smoother and less gritty texture for the hummus, almost equivalent to a chip dip as opposed to a lumpy bean dip.

Additionally, water should never be added to hummus. It detracts from the emollient effect of the olive oil causing even more gritty texture and eventual separation should the hummus be displayed for a longer amount of time.

Garnish

Never in all of my life have I experienced a hummus that utilizes pine nuts and parsley as garnish. Both of these flavors are severely in contrast to the flavors of the hummus. While parsley may be a popular garnish on standard restaurant dishes, this is not the case in Middle Eastern cooking where garnish is meant to enhance the meal.

In conclusion, this recipe does not meet the high standards that our culinary website thrives upon. It is in the best interest of the website to republish this recipe with the attached modifications before publicizing the recipe.

Hummus Recipe

INGREDIENTS

2 garlic cloves, mashed and then minced Roasted and removed from casings

2 15-oz cans of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed 4 cups of freshly cooked garbonzo beans (chickpeas), strained