Homous: soooooo much more than a dip!!!

Following my recent post where I shared my ‘holy grail’ homous recipe, I got into a couple of conversations about the eating of homous that made me think that maybe people don’t eat it or use it, quite like I do. I then read a post from the Frugal Hausfrau in which she and Ginger challenged each other to make their version of the same dish, and a plan formed in my head….the FH and I started to discuss a similar pair of posts between us and debated what dish we could compare. When she mentioned using chickpeas, my light bulb moment occurred: let’s compare how we each utilise homous. Here’s what the Frugal Hausfrau did with hers 🙂

Yes, I spell like this: homous; you may be used to seeing it like this: hummus, or this, homous, however you spell it, we are talking about the Middle Eastern dip comprised of chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and garlic (for my full foolproof recipe refer to my post). You’ve all seen me playing with variations on the theme, roasted parsnip, roasted carrot, harissa, black garlic, spiced sprouts, roasted garlic, sweet potato, there is an endless array of variations and flavours that can be achieved with this wonderful stuff, and all of mine are listed in my recipe index.

So, yes, on occasion, I too dip carrot sticks into my homous, bit more typically I eat my homous as my ‘meat’, for want of a better description. I eat great piles of it, together with salads and vegetables; it provides the protein in my meal with the tahini and chickpeas..

I also use it as a sauce/dressing to add something ‘wet’ to my salads or vegetables. It’s probably a habit from the Middle East, homous and dips are eaten as a mezze with everything.

I also use mine as a replacement for cream or yoghurt on sauces, especially in something like a chilli if I want to reduce the heat..

..again, I’m adding much needed protein in my vegetarian diet, but it’s also then non dairy if anyone is looking for a replacement. You could also use tahini sauce, basically, replace the chickpeas with water to make it and add it to everything!

I hope these will give you some ideas about using homous differently and why it’s a great reason to make your own: it’s cheaper for starters! And when you use as much as I do, buying little 200g pots wouldn’t last me a day!!! (And also why it’s a myth that vegetarians are thin!!!)

The Frugal Hausfrau and I are bringing our homous regimes to this week’s Fiesta Friday; we hope that you can join us and all of the other wonderful bloggers who come along, and especially the weekly co hosts who look after us all so well; this week our co hosts are the inimitable Suzanne and Sue, two wonderful cooks and gorgeous ladies that I am very happy to call my friends 🙂

And if you’ve never visited the Frugal Hausfrau do pop over and have a look through her blog, every post comes with such useful information, she is so thorough and knowledgeable. You won’t fail to find a plethora of useful recipes!

Have a great weekend everyone, Happy Valentines Day from me and Bob xx