FOOD FOR THOUGHT...

"Good chefs, like artists, are visionaries. You have to have a vision of the taste, the look, the smell of your masterpiece; you hold it in your mind and make it materialize."

Onid Jatteri

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Hummus a tune, Carrot!

I love hummus!!  It is always fun to come up with variations of this simple, yummy dip/spread.  The basic ingredient is garbanzo beans, usually canned.

For this raw version, I first sprouted the garbanzos (also known as chickpeas) for 3 days, then lightly steamed them just until they were tender, quickly cooling them under cold water.

Then into the processor! Some carrots jumped in, along with a bit of olive oil, lemon juice, several cloves of garlic, cumin, and seasalt - SO SIMPLE:

  Here's CARROT HUMMUS:
 Hummus is a base for a variety of add-ins, such as chopped parsley or cilantro, peppers (hot or sweet), maybe some diced pineapple...live it up!  Here I used the sweet peppers as dippers, with Plain Jane carrot hummus - it really needed no embellishing, letting that carrot flavor shine.

For lunch, I used the rest of the batch of garbanzo beans to make a bean/avocado mash-up, with garlic and cilantro - another simple but simply delish raw spread!  On grainy bread, what a treat!  Just to make it feel special beside that yummy hummus, a topping of fresh alfalfa sprouts and a tiny dab of colored pepper - a super open-face sammie!

A fresh pineapple/spinach green smoothie rounded out my patio lunch - umm umm!
The only thing as fun as growing my veggies, greens, and sprouts, is eating raw foods that make my heart sing!