Lemon & Herb Hummus ((homemade — starting with dried garbanzos))

It is time for some healthy, homemade snack options. In other words, I will be wearing a swimsuit at the lake in a few short weeks and I don’t feel swimsuit ready. Haha…sniff.

When David heard me muttering things about needing to get swimsuit ready and loosing a few pounds he said: “Well, when you eat chips and salsa three times a week and keep a spoon next to your own jar of cookie butter — what do you expect??”.

First of all, it is a good thing I love him because that comment seems like fighting words. No one talks about my cookie butter and chips & salsa that way without going on meal restriction. Just kidding, or am I??

Second of all – I love chips & salsa and I love Trader Joe’s cookie butter ((especially the Oreo kind – oh wow it is crazy good)). Oh who am I kidding, I love them and they use me. Once I am ready for them to go, they attach themselves to me in places I don’t want. And then the unthinkable happens — my pants tighten.

If my pants immediately tightened upon swallowing these goodies maybe I would totally cut them off. But no, cookie butter and chips & salsa are sneaky. They tighten your pants when you least expect it – like three days later. There is a pretty mental picture for you.

Let’s move on. 

Hummus — I really love making it from scratch. What? Did you just picture yourself opening a can on garbanzo beans and dumping them into a food processor? Well, that is not really homemade.

I start with dry garbanzos and cook them in the pressure cooker for 50 minutes ((on HIGH, natural pressure release)), along with a few bay leaves, garlic cloves, a teaspoon of oil and water. You can see several pictures of that process here — and see three additional yummy hummus recipes I have shared in the past.

Once your garbanzos are cooked, the flavors are limitless. It is fun to try different combinations of veggies & spices!

For this batch of hummus, I intended to use a large bundle of my fresh herbs to flavor the beans. But as I tasted the mixture, I could tell it was missing something. 

The juice and zest of one large lemon did the trick!

On top of the amazing flavor difference between store-bought and homemade — there is another pretty great bonus to making homemade. You can control the fat and pronounce all of the ingredients. For this hummus, the only fat came from the tahini paste. I thinned it to my desired consistency using the cooking water. Trust me — you won’t miss the fat!

This hummus is super creamy & perfectly flavored; great with veggies and crackers. It isn’t quite as tasty as Cookies & Creme Cookie Butter, but really – what else is??