homesick recipe: mary’s hummus

Mary’s Hummus

Here’s the deal: I hate long recipe explanations.

But I love cooking almost as much as I love eating. And when homesickness would hit me hard in the early days in Italy, family recipes helped.

Mary was my paternal grandmother. Mary was Lebanese, her parents came to the states from Syria a long long time ago. Mary liked hummus, she taught my mom, my mom taught me. And now I make it for my daughter who eats it by the spoonful. Finita.

Ingredients

1 15 oz can chickpeas (drain but reserve the liquid)

⅓ cup Tahini

2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 garlic cloves (BIG ones)

2 ice cubes

Spoonful of Greek Yogurt

Pinch of salt (optional)

In a food processor, add in the drained chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic cloves, salt (optional). Pulse until fully combined and a little lumpy. Now add your Greek Yogurt. Pulse again until combined. If the texture seems a little dry, slowly add your reserved chickpea liquid in small increments at a time until the mixture softens. Finally, add in your ice cubes and let that baby blend until fluffy.

Serve with warm pita and a drizzle of olive oil and a little cayenne pepper or tabasco (that’s how I was taught to do it).

Keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

My great grandparents with Mary (eldest on the left) and her siblings