Home-Made Hummus

This homemade hummus is delicious and easy to make.  This is a great recipe for parties as you can bring it as an appetizer and tell everyone that its made from scratch.  It is also super fun as it always intrigues people to try what you brought and seems to excite guests more than if you just bought some at the store.  The recipe I'm using today is based off of Sally Schneider "A New Way To Cook" Cookbook. This recipe isn't overly time consuming, and is a great dip to serve with veggies, pita bread, or anything you'd please.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 tsp  ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 1/2 cups canned chickpeas
• 3 tbsp tahini
• 3-4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• about 1/2 cup of the chickpea juice

Toppings:

• 3-4 gloves of garlic
• chopped cilantro
• 1-2 tsp olive oil

Directions:
1) In a small skillet toast the coriander seeds on low heat, until fragrant.  Once done then crush coarsely. (You can use a spice grinder, mortar + pestle, or I found a coffee bean grinder worked well). Then toast the sesame seeds and grind together.  Once everything is ground add in the cumin, and set aside.
2)  In a small bowl mix together the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, cayenne, garlic cloves sliced, the ground spice mixture, and a tbsp of the chickpea juice.
3) Place the drained chickpeas into the food processor and mix adding about 1 tbsp of the liquid at a time until their is a medium-coarse puree. Once that's done pour in the reserved chickpea juice until it is a fluffy texture.
3) Taking the hummus you can top with chopped cilantro if you please.  You can also mince or press the garlic and toast in a pan with olive oil for more of a garlicky taste.  Once you have your toppings place your hummus in the refrigerator to cool, then serve and enjoy when ready.

-Megan