Hummus – Roasted Red Peppers – Avocado

Nov 9th, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 50227 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirauncut.com%2Fhummus-roasted-red-peppers-avocado%2FHummus+-+Roasted+Red+Peppers+-+Avocado2010-11-10+02%3A50%3A34%2B%2BMira%2B%2Bhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirauncut.com%2F%3Fp%3D502

EVERYONE and their mother loves hummus. This is my old school Lebanese recipe. It’s vegetarian/vegan of course, as humus should be! No bacon to muck it up please.

I like to make it from scratch, meaning, dried chickpeas / garbanzo beans. If you want to save time, you can just used canned chickpeas and skip the next few steps.

You have to start the night before. Take a little over 2 cups dried beans and soak them generously with 1 teaspoon baking soda.

The next day, before boiling, just wash them out and add to a pot and immerse in water. Make sure all the chickpeas are submerged and there is enough water for them to absorb.

Boil it for at least 20 min. Make sure the chickpeas melt when put in your mouth. Check on them regularly. Don’t over cook or the whole thing will turn to mush and you will have a saucy hot mess.

Consider yourself WARNED about the over cooking and one more thing…DON”T cover the pot or the water will foam up and boil over onto your stove. Don’t forget then blame me, aight?

For the recipe start with

• 4 cups cooked/canned chickpeas
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup tahini (ground sesame seeds)
• don’t forget the salt

Use a food processor if you have one. If you don’t you can use a blender, but it will come out chunkier and you will need to work in smaller batches.

Add the chickpeas first and start blending. WHHRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr (sound of blender, yeh, im a dork)

keep going…WHHRRRRrRrrrrrr

Till the garbanzo beans are pulverized

Add the garlic….then WWWHHRRRRRR (I add less because my hubby likes it less garlicky)

I love mine lemony so I use 1/2 cup, but you can add less if ya like..then…WHHHRRRRRR..

Then let it WWWHHRRRRRR while you slowly drizzle in the tahini. The more you add the creamier it is.

And Voila. Hummus…yum yumm…

Now you can go ahead and plate it and eat, or like out the bowl or whatever you like…or….

OR…jazz it up a bit and make a hummus TRIO!

You will need some avocados and some Roasted Red Peppers

This doesn’t need precise measuring. I added 2 avocados to about a cup and a half of the hummus puree.

WHHHRRRRR……

It was sooo green and yummy….next time i might even add some tomatoes and onions and make Guacummus…get it? Yeh, again, I can be realllly not funny, but you know you laughed anyways 🙂

On to the peppers….WHHHRRRRRrrrrr

and more yum!

I wanted to spice up the presentation and plate it up appetizer style, layer the 3, act like I’m Martha Stewart…so your welcome in advance for the following hummus food porn.

Like I said..no need to thank me 🙂 Also, check out the Baba Ghanoush I made.

always uncut,

Mira.

Chestnut Butternut squash soup

Feb 1st, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 36Commenthttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirauncut.com%2Fchestnut-butternut-squash-soup%2FChestnut+Butternut+squash+soup2010-02-02+03%3A24%3A58%2B%2BMira%2B%2Bhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirauncut.com%2F%3Fp%3D36

I picked up a good sized butternut squash for a nice fall soup. I halved it, then scooped out the seeds (which u can clean and roast), seasoned it with I picked up a good sized butternut squash for a nice fall soup. I halved it, then scooped out the seeds (which u can clean and roast), seasoned it with chilipowder, salt and pepper, lay it skin up on a pan with a little bit of water, and roasted it in the oven at 350 for about half an hour till soft. Then you can scoup the flesh out with a spoon.

While the squash was in the oven, i peeled some chestnuts (takes some patience and it will ruin ur manicure), then boiled them till soft. Hnadle with care because they can break apart.

once all my ingredients were ready, i sweated down half and onion and 1 medium carrot in a pressure cooker (i love how everything is faster with them). Then added the squash, chestnuts, nutmeg, a little cinnamon, you could add heavy cream to make it creamy but i wanted mine without it. You also need chicken stock, at least 3 cups depending on how thick you want it.chilipowder, salt and pepper, lay it skin up on a pan with a little bit of water, and roasted it in the oven at 350 for about half an hour till soft. Then you can scoup the flesh out with a spoon.

While the squash was in the oven, i peeled some chestnuts (takes some patience and it will ruin ur manicure), then boiled them till soft. Handle with care because they can break apart.

once all my ingredients were ready, i sweated down half and onion and 1 medium carrot in a pressure cooker (i love how everything is faster with them). Then added the squash, chestnuts, nutmeg, a little cinnamon, you could add heavy cream to make it creamy but i wanted mine without it. You also need chicken stock, at least 3 cups depending on how thick you want it.

and after, i blended it with a hand blender, if you don’t have one just use a regular blender and do it in batches till its smooth..and….

VOILA!

I put some sourcream and chives on mine, you can use creme fraiche, yogurt or whatever u like on top.

it was super easy to make even though it took some initial prep time. AND the best part about it was there was so much left over that i froze the rest in 2 batches, so its at hand any time i need it this winter!

++MIRA++