Classic Hummus...

I love hummus - who doesn’t - I love it, and I make it often. It’s one of my favorite foods, and it’s often a saving grace when it comes to eating healthfully - and sometimes just plain eating - as a vegan traveler. No matter where you go, no matter how small the town, or how vegan-unfriendly the city, someone, somewhere has hummus. It seems to be universally loved, and it seems that everyone and their mother has a personal hummus recipe that they like best.

When it comes to hummus I don’t care if it’s thick, thin, creamy, extra-creamy, or a little textured. I love them all just so long as the flavor is good. That’s that’s really the key, because hummus just ain’t no good if it’s bland or boring. I don’t mean that you have to dress it up and make if fancy - although I love that too - I just mean that when it comes to a good hummus you should be able to taste the nutty tahini, the tart lemon, the bitter cumin, and the garlic, oh gods the garlic!  Hummus without garlic is like a hand without fingers. You definitely, definitely need the garlic!

For years and years I used to make hummus with canned chickpeas and the result was always good it comes out smooth and creamy like I like, and the flavor is wonderful. Until this year I had never made hummus with dried beans before, and this is because my old stove just wasn’t up to the challenge of cooking a bean as hard as the garbanzo. I don’t know why this is, but no matter how long I cooked them on the stove they never got soft. Now my new stove cooks these things like a champ in about an hour, and I have to say the flavor of hummus with home-cooked beans is really out of this world.

Another thing I love about hummus is that it’s so versatile. Really as long as you have chickpeas you can do basically anything else you like. You can season it with whatever you have on hand, and often times while I’ve been on vacations where I’ve had access to a kitchen - or at least a food processor - I’ve been able to whip up hummus using almond butter instead of tahini, lime juice instead of lemon, garlic powder instead of fresh garlic. Hell I’ve even used basil, oregano, curry, and other random seasonings to flavor it when I didn’t have enough cumin. It’s easy, simple, filling and oh so satisfying!

For the sake of your convenience you can use either canned or home-cooked in this recipe, but I highly recommend you trying the home-cooked method, because it really is amazing. So here I go tossing my hat into the ring and adding another hummus recipe into the

Classic Hummus 

2 ½ C Home-Cooked Chickpeas (about 1 heaping cup dried)
4-6 Garlic cloves
3 tsp Ground Cumin
2 tsp Ground Coriander
3/4 tsp Smoked Paprika
½ tsp Onion Powder
5 Tbsp Lemon Juice
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
6 Tbsp Tahini
Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste
1/3C -2/3C water - (Or enough to reach your desired consistency, the more you use the creamier and thinner the hummus)


- Combine the chickpeas and the garlic in a food processor and process until you have corse crumbs.

- Add in the spices, salt, pepper, tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil. Process until you have a thick paste. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

- Add in the water and process until you have a smooth creamy dip. Add enough water to reach your desired consistency. This may take a few minutes depending on your processor and you may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times.

- Scrape the hummus out into a serving dish and garnish with a drizzle of olive oil, some smoked paprika or a dash of cayenne pepper, and a little minced cilantro. Enjoy as a dip for veggies or toasted pita or forget the serving dish and use the hummus in a wrap, on a sandwich, scooped onto a salad, spread out onto some falafels, or spread across some socca. Enjoy!

Franco-Moroccan Inspired Eggplant, Squash and Tempeh Crumble...

Who doesn’t love a good crumble? On a crisp fall evening there are few better ways to end the night then with a warm homemade apple or plum crumble. Am I right? But, have you ever had a savory crumble before? Have you ever eaten crumble for dinner? Yeah neither had I, until I came across a savory crumble recipe in Beatrice Peltre’s ‘La Tartine Gourmande’ that caught my interest. I was so intrigued by the idea that I did a little internet research and as it turns out crumbles in general are thought to be of British or Irish origin, and have always been made in both sweet and savory varieties, although the sweet versions are far more common. Interestingly crumbles didn’t become a popular or widespread menu item until the second world war, when strict rationing of flour, sugar and butter made it nearly impossible for people to make pies since pie crusts require so much of the three rationed ingredients. Instead some ingenious people decided to make the pie filling and throw a crust-like mixture on top, and since it was so easy, and cheap to make it really caught fire. Cool right?

Anyway, crumble for dinner? I’d never considered such a thing before, but all this information really got me interested in trying one out for myself, the only thing I had to figure out was what kind of crumble to make. Peltre’s recipe used eggplant and squash and had a gluten-free crust and I liked the idea of those things. Eggplant and squash I both had on hand and they fueled my daydreams of warmer more hospitable climates such as those in the Mediterranean, the South of France, Africa and The Middle East. So I took that inspiration and ran with it, combining a mixture of Middle Eastern and French elements to form this super savory, slightly tangy, a tad sweet, flavor packed and decadent crumble. I kept the idea fo a gluten-free crumble topping because, well why the hell not? But I added cooked amaranth and nutritional yeast to make it a bit more substantial and to give it that creamy cheesy flavor that savory crumbles are suppose to boast.

I had no idea how this experiment was going to work out, but in the end I was more then surprised. This was definitely one of the most surprisingly delicious meals I’d made in some time. No matter how odd you might think the idea of a savory crumble is, the bottom line is that this worked. Plain and simple, it was so delicious that there’s no doubt you’ll go back for seconds! I know this recipe has a few steps, and it requires you to dirty a few different dishes but trust me when I say every ounce of effort is so worth it! So expand your horizons and give it a try.

Franco-Moroccan Inspired Eggplant, Squash and Tempeh Crumble 

For the Tempeh 

1lb Tempeh
1 Tbsp Fennel Seed
1 tsp Dried Basil
1 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 tsp Ground Mace
1 ½ C Water + 1 Beef Bouillon Cube
3/4 C Red Wine

For The Crumble Topping 

2/3 C Finely Chopped Walnuts
1/3 C Millet Flour
1/4 C Brown Rice Flour
4 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
1/4 C Amaranth Cooked in 3/4 C Water
1 tsp Ground Cumin
Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste
4 Tbsp Earth Balance
½ Bunch Parsley Minced

For The Crumble Filling 

1 Medium Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded and chopped. Roughly 4 C
1 Medium Eggplant chopped. Roughly 4 C
4 Tomatoes Blanched, peeled and chopped
1 Large Yellow Onion Chopped
2 Stalks Celery Chopped
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
8 Garlic Cloves Minced
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Ground Coriander
8oz Tomato Sauce
1 tsp Dried Rubbed Sage
½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste
1/3 C Chopped Sun-dried tomatoes
6 Tbsp Capers with liquid

To Make the Tempeh -

- Mix 1 Beef Bouillon cube with 1 C of water.

- Crumble the Tempeh into a large pan, and add all the spices. Cover with the water/Bouillon mixture and the red wine. There should be enough liquid to cover the tempeh but it depends on the size of your pan. If it doesn’t quite cover add up to ½ C more.

- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer on medium or medium-low until all or most of the liquid has been absorbed by the tempeh. Roughly 20-25 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

To Make the Filling - 

- Heat the olive oil in the same pan you used to make your tempeh mixture. Add the onion, celery and garlic and saute for roughly five minutes. Add the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, black pepper and salt and cook for another two minutes.

- Add the blanched chopped tomatoes, the tomato paste, the chopped eggplant and the cubed squash. Stir to thoroughly combine, then cover. Over medium-high heat let the mixture come to a roaring simmer, let simmer for 5 minutes then stir, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer the mixture for another 25 minutes. Make sure to check frequently to make sure the liquid doesn’t evaporate and the filling doesn’t burn. If it is looking too dry add a quarter cup of water.

- After 25 minutes add the tempeh mixture into the pan, along with the sage, capers, and sun-dried tomatoes. Stir well to combine and simmer an additional 10 minutes until squash is nice and tender.

- Remove from heat, and spoon the mixture into a large greased casserole dish.

- To Make the Crumble Topping.

- While your mixture is simmering combine all dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.

- Melt the Earth Balance in the microwave, and add it into the dry mixture along with the cooked amaranth. Mix until nice and crumbly.

To Assemble and Bake.

- Preheat the oven to 400'F

- Spread the crumble mixture evenly over top of the filling in the greased casserole dish. Then place the casserole dish uncovered into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until filling is bubbly and topping is lightly browned.

- Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Then enjoy with a nice salad and a glass of sangria!

*** Note - If you need this to be soy-free you can replace the tempeh with Seitan. However if you need this to be soy and gluten-free you can try replacing the tempeh with a bean of your choosing. Either chickpeas or something hearty would be my suggestion.***

Vegan Mofo #25 - Celine & Tamasin’s Bulgur Hummus Wraps...

Vegan Mofo #25 - Celine & Tamasin’s Bulgur Hummus Wraps 

The Book - Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!
The Author - Celine Steen & Tamasin Noyes
The Recipe - Bulgur Hummus Wraps
Page # 70
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - Roughly 30 minutes

I love these wraps, they are bursting with flavor and full of delicious, nutritious simple whole foods ingredients. They may not sound all that exiting or innovative at first, at least that’s what I thought, but one night I was looking for something super quick and easy to throw together that I could also use for Mofo, and this wrap just jumped out at me. I also happened to be in the mood for something with a middle eastern flavor so this was the perfect choice.

To prepare the bulgur Celine and Tamasin suggest that you place it in a bowl with water, sea salt , pepper, cayenne, garlic, onion powder and lemon juice then cover it in plastic and leave it in the fridge for 2 hours. That was too long for me so I used my tried and true method of preparing bulgur which is to pour boiling water over the bulgur then cover it and let it sit for fifteen to twenty minutes until all the water is absorbed. It’s much faster this way and yields the same result.

While your bulgur is plumping up you can make the hummus. Hummus is something I make a lot and I’ve tried a lot of different recipes and variations, most of them have been pretty damn good but I typically always prefer my own version of humus. For the sake of this recipe though I decided to use Celine and Tamasin’s Hummus and boy was it good! I’m telling you, this is probably one of the best hummus recipes I’ve ever tried and it has a totally unexpected ingredient in it. Capers! I know it sounds strange but love it! And it went surprisingly well with everything else in the dish.

So aside from capers and chickpeas the hummus also has the usual suspects of olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, paprika, plus some brine from the capers. You whip it up in a food processor and voila! Instant deliciousness!

The final component of the wraps is some simple sauteed veggies such a shredded red and green cabbage, carrots salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil. Celine and Tamasin say to make this an even quicker meal you can just toss the raw veg with the oil and salt and serve that way but I chose to saute the veggies and it turned out really well. Once all the steps are completed you smear a generous amount of hummus onto a tortilla, layer on some bulgur top it with the veggies and roll it up! You really have to try these, they are absolutely to die for!