hummus

2 15 oz. cans of chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons of sesame tahini
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup water, more or less for thickness - I used 1/2 as much
pinch of cumin or coriander (optional)
salt and pepper
paprika - preferably hungarian smoked if you can find it.

They say to start by putting 1/2 the chickpeas and olive oil in a blender, but I found this to be fruitless without more liquid. So after pulsing several times and scraping several times, way way before it was "pureed and creamy", I gave in and dumped everything but the water in the blender and did the pulse/scrape dance. I didn't think it would do much harm, and it worked okay. I only put the water in at the end because I forgot and thought it might chill too thick - so only used a little and it was fine. I think your mileage may vary depending on the soaking of the beans.

My opinion is that this could have WAY more garlic, or lots more other fun things like sun-dried tomatoes or whatever else you put in. It reminds me a little of this hummus I'm obsessed with at the greek place on Garnet in PB. (I made Mike go there when we went to SD, because I still have never had pita bread so deliciously fresh or hummus more perfect.) This would be better with fresh pita bread, and I think even better if you went through all the pain of making your own garbanzo beans, but the canned stuff is good enough combined with the flexibility and volume it made to make it super worth it to me. It was CERTAINLY better than the "walnut mushroom pate" that looked like nasty grossness and tasted just as bad - so this hummus redeemed the cookbook.