Hummus has been on of our favorite foods for a long time. It was my husband's go to snack for a long time, although he normally ate store bought. Even after we had stopped buying processed foods, he would still run out to the convenience store in a pinch for some hummus. The main problem with hummus from the store is that it is not soaked and sometimes made with rancid vegetable oils. Homemade hummus tastes much better and has a better texture; store bought tends to be thin and watery. After experimenting a bit in our new home, I think I have come up with a pretty good recipe for making soaked hummus.
Some people are concerned about using dried chickpeas for homemade hummus because they are hard to cook down, even when soaked, enough to become very soft. I actually like a little more texture to my hummus so I am good with that. Another option may be to use Eden Organic chickpeas, which come in a bpa free can and are packed with nori seaweed. Adding seaweed to beans while cooking is a traditional method and makes the beans easier to digest, even if they are not properly soaked. To soak dried beans you will need:
1. two cups dried chickpeas
2. four tablespoons acid (I use raw apple cider vinegar)
*I always use this table here, but you could find many others
http://www.wonderfulingredients.com/soaking-grains-and-beans
Very easy, just cover the chickpeas and acid with clean water. The beans will double in size so leave enough water and room for that to happen. I try to get the water level just right to where I am leaving enough room but not wasting more water than I have to. Chickpeas take about 24 hours of soaking to reduce phytic acid content. I normally always do about a day and a half for grains and beans that do not sprout easily (from my experience, that includes chickpeas).
When the beans are ready to cook, thoroughly rinse them off to diminish the acidic taste from your medium. Cook with fresh water on low heat. I leave it on the stove for a long time, up to 45 minutes even, to get them as soft as possible. Like I said, they will not become as soft as canned beans and eventually they will reach a point where they maintain their texture even with prolonged cooking. After they are done I like to rinse them with cold water to make them less hot before going into the blender and again reducing any leftover acid flavor. My recipe is:
2 cups cooked chickpeas (you will have some left over)
1 tablespoon tahini
Juice of 1 lemon
1 hot pepper(optional)
3 cloves garlic (lightly roasted or raw)
1/2 cup evoo
1/4 cup water
sprinkle of sea salt to taste
various herbs to taste
I puree the chickpeas with the evoo and lemon first with a good sprinkling of seas salt. From there you can add a little bit of water or more evoo to get the consistency you like. I like a thicker hummus and personally I find most recipes use too much water. I like the rich olive oil taste much better, but you can play with ratios of water and evoo (obviously there is a cost issue here too). Next add the garlic, hot pepper if you wish, and tahini. We do not like a strong tahini taste, but you could add one or two more tablespoons if you do. Get your herbs out and play around while blending them in. I like herbs de Provence as an all around mixture.
You can garnish with the extra chickpeas if you like or save them for something else. If you have any lemon juice leftover, you can squeeze some more on top before serving with a sprinkling of sea salt. I have been playing around with making my own crackers and also crostinis from leftover bread, but I snapped this picture with the organic brown rice crackers I buy sometimes. Along with some slow-cooker veggies, this makes a great afternoon snack or light lunch. You could even eat the hummus with some cut up raw veggies or placing a dollop on top of a salad to reduce the overall carbohydrates of the meal. Simple and Yummy!
Homemade Sauerkraut is just about as simple and nourishing as it gets! It makes a wonderful condiment to many meals and is much less expensive to make at home. This is also one of those cases where store bought products can be a far cry from the traditional food. I have been using the small batch method that Sally Fallon Morell introduced in "Nourishing Traditions". I am so grateful for this method, as some other ones out there seem time consuming and unsuitable for a small space. In NT, Sally writes, " The ancients understood the fact that important chemical changes took place during this type of fermentation. Their name for this change was "alchemy". Like the fermentation of dairy products, preservation of vegetables and fruits by the process of lacto-fermentation has numerous advantages beyond those of simple preservation. The proliferation of lactobacilli in fermented vegetables enhances their digestibility and increases vitamin levels. These beneficial organisms produce numerous helpful enzymes as well as antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances."
Wow! A great, easy process that preserves veggies, increases vitamins, and can prevent cancer? Count me in : )
Basically the method in NT involves pounding a whole head of cabbage with either salt or a combination of salt and isolated whey (you can make it from raw milk or yogurt). I have not been making whey recently, although I want to start up again, so I went the all salt route. The first time I made it, I used Sally's full recommendation of 2 tablespoons of salt. However, and probably because I used only about 3/4 of the cabbage instead of the whole thing, the end product was very salty. This time I cut back to 1 1/2 tablespoons for the whole cabbage. FYI: For the use of whey, you can use 1 tablespoon salt and 4 tablespoons whey. Make sure you core the cabbage and remove the outer leaves that are no longer hard. Sally's "basic recipe" also calls for a tablespoon of caraway seeds, which are a delicious addition.
I tried to cut it as fine as possible, but it can be very difficult. If anyone knows of a knife or tool that makes this easier, I would love to hear it. Also, the cabbage will continue to soften over time so if you happen to cut it more coarse, you can always hang on to it longer.
I filled up a plastic bowl with the washed cabbage and got ready to
pound it out. I definitely recommend doing this on a carpet on the floor
if you don't live in a building alone and do not want your neighbors
freaking out. Also, I found that being able to kneel helped use more
force and I can imagine traditional cultures doing it that way. I
probably pounded for about 10-12 minutes. You will hear bubbling noises and
notice some liquid coming out in the bowl. You do not have to go too
crazy because once it gets put in the mason jar, you will probably find
that you have more than enough liquid to cover the cabbage.
Transferring the cabbage to the mason jar (or jars in this case) is not
the most graceful process. I used a fork and my hands and did the best I
could. The recommended size is a wide mouthed quart jar. After you add some cabbage (maybe every other forkful) , press down with your pounder if you can, or another tool if it does not fit, to get as much in there as possible. I used a muddle type tool that we got for guacamole a long time ago.
I kind of felt like I let Sally down a little because I found it impossible to get all the cabbage in one jar. However, I realized the cabbage I used might really be considered a large one and not medium like she recommends, so I felt better : ). Make sure the cabbage is covered with its juices AND that you leave some space at the top of the jar. Both equally important things. The cabbage will ferment and expand so you need space. You will see bubbles and the jar will probably pop the first time you open it. You can transfer it to the fridge after three days and it will continue to slowly age. I added some herbs de provence to this batch and it turned out great. Sally has many recipes in NT and there are endless combinations of spices to be played around with.
One of my favorite new quick dinners is adding the sauerkraut to my slow cooker stewed veggies with melted butter. The sweet butter complements the sauerkraut and the mix of temperatures works well together. I can imagine sauerkraut in almost any soup to be divine...
I heard Sally Fallon Morrel speak once and she mentioned that she thinks people overdo it on sauerkraut and that you only need a little bit. She states in the book, also, that it is a condiment and should be used as such. I agree and I think I was one of those people overdoing it when I first found out how good it was for you. I read that it helped with digestion so I began to buy it from a local organic farm in NY that made it with their own cabbage. It was daunting at first because I thought I needed to eat a whole bowl at a time; after hearing her speak, I cut back and discovered I felt just as good with just a forkful with meals...
Books:
One great book that I have heard about again and again is "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Katz. He also just released anther one called "The Art of Fermentation". Also, Glowfglins blogger Wardeh Harmon has released "The Complete Idiots Guide to Fermenting Foods" that just got a glowing thumbs up review from the last WAPF journal.
