Hummus and pita bread

Last week i bought dried chickpeas and tahini at the supermarket. It is hummus time! Tahini is a made from sesame seeds. I know, i could make this myself as well, but man, i just want the hummus. So i bought it. The chickpeas i bought dry. A new thing for me. I usually buy chickpeas in a tin, already cooked. But it is a lot cheaper to cook the chickpeas yourself.

Ingredients hummus

• 200g chickpeas
• 1 lemon
• 2 garlic cloves, or 1 big one
• salt
• 100ml tahini
• 4 tbsp water or cooking liquid from the chickpeas
• 1 tsp paprika

After soaking and cooking the chickpeas most work was done. Well, apart from skinning the chickpeas. When i got the chickpeas out of the cooking liquid, i rubbed them with some kitchen paper. The white transparent skins do come off rather easily. Most were removed by the rubbing, some i had to squeeze out. Since they were well cooked, they usually just slipped out. A few more rubbings and removing of the skins later and they were all clean and tidy in the small food processor.

I added one big garlic clove, the juice of one lemon, three serving spoons of tahini, one teaspoon of salt and paprika. I blended this for around a minute or two. After that i added two serving spoons of the cooking liquid. I blended a minute more.

I tasted the hummus. The tahini came through great. I like the taste of the sesame seeds. I realized then i had forgotten the olive oil. But it was fine, i will add the olive oil when i serve it together with the pita bread.

Pita bread i usually buy. Today i thought about what i will be eating. I still have the roasted vegetables in the fridge, but they can stay good until tomorrow. I was planning on making the hummus this week anyway, so then my mind turned to pita bread. I do have all the ingredients in house to make, so why not. First i planned to make half a recipe, but then i read that you can keep the dough in the fridge for about a week.

I used this recipe from the kitchn.

Ingredients pita bread

• 240 ml water (not hot or boiling)
• 2 teaspoons active dry or instant yeast
• 310 gr flour, i used wholemeal
• 60 gr flour for the kneading
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1-2 teaspoons olive oil (optional)

Preparing the dough is a basic bread recipe. Add the yeast to the water and let it rest for five minutes. Weigh the flour and add the salt. After the five minutes add the flour to the water, add the oil and mix it all together. Take the dough out of the bowl, use some extra flour and knead for around 7-10 minutes. I always have some music on, so that is around three to four songs. Clean the bowl, add a bit of oil, then the dough and set it at a warm space and leave it for an hour or two.

I made the hummus in the meantime and let that rest until dinner time.

Around fifteen minutes before the rising is finished, turn on your oven to around 230ºC. Make sure to heat up a large baking sheet in the oven. You will need the heat. You may also use a cooking pan (read about that on the kitchn website). When the rising is done, get the dough out of the bowl and slightly deflate it. Now is the time to put the part you won’t be using yet in the fridge. I put in two thirds. From the other third i made three small balls and rolled them out with a bit of flour beneath them. You need to bake the breads for around three minutes.

Since this was my first time making the pita bread, only two puffed up. In the recipe it says that if this happens the oven or skillet is not hot enough. It also says you can still eat them, especially in pieces with hummus. Since this was exactly my recipe, i didn’t bother that much. The taste was good anyway.

I did eat two pita breads and enough hummus to dip each bit in. A bit of oil and some flat parsley added. I kept one pita to have an hour later with an avocado. Half.

Yum 🙂