These were a little recipe I came across on pinterest. With always an abundance of chick peas in my house, I thought it would be churlish not to have a go and I was rather pleased with the results. They were crunchy and tasty and made a nice cheap alternative to nuts. 4 of us went through a bowl in no time whilst playing a game of monopoly, so they will definitely be served again some time soon.

Ingredients

400g of chickpeas

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 teaspoon of Mexican seasoning

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

If you are using canned chick peas drain them and if you are using dried you will need to soak and cook them first. You need to make sure that your chickpeas are extremely dry. Pat them down with kitchen paper several times. The drier they are the crunchier they will be. Spread them on a baking tray and bake them in a single layer at 190 degrees Celsius for about 20-30 minutes. You will see the steam escaping as they bake. Once they are almost done, take them out and coat in the olive oil, salt, pepper, and Mexican spices. Bake for another 10-20 minutes until crunchy the whole way through. You may want to keep an eye on them towards the end to make sure they don’t burn. Serve straight away or store in an airtight container for a day or two. Voilà roasted spicy chickpeas.

After trying the wonderful flavoured hummus of Hummus in Korea, I thought it was about time I started doing a bit more experimenting myself. I have made a spinach one before and a red pepper I never posted but I wanted to get more creative. I had a large bunch of cilantro in the fridge that was coming to the end of its life. I threw it into the blender and it totally tantalized my taste buds. Cilantro is not as hard to find as you would think. The Korean name is 고수 (go-su). It usually comes in large packets, cling filmed on to a white tray. The cilantro has long roots on it, which is always what used to throw me off.

Ingredients

Hummus

400g of Chickpeas (soaked weight)

A large bunch of cilantro

2-4 tablespoons of olive oil

1-2 tablespoons of cumin

1-2 lemons

1-2 tablespoons of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper pepper

Tahini

100ml of olive oil

3-5 cloves garlic

100g of sesame seeds

Directions

The first thing you need to do is soak your chickpeas. This can take between 6 hours to overnight. The longer the better in my opinion. After they have been soaked, you need to cook them. This can take a while. I usually cook mine in the rice cooker because you don’t have to top up the water as often and they won’t burn. If not you can cook them in a pan of water, they will take between 2-3 hours. Or you can skip this step and buy a can. When your chick peas are done, drain them but make sure you keep hold of that water, you will need it for the hummus.

The next step is to blend the chips peas, you may need to do this in a couple of batches depending on the size of your blender. If they are too hard to blend, use a little of the hummus water to get things going. Some like their hummus chunky and rugged others like it smooth and silky, so blend until you get the consistency you’re happy with. If you want want an ultra silky hummus then peel off all of the skins of the chick peas before blending. It’s a pain in the ass so I never do it. Also my hummus is generally made in industrial style batches so it would probably take me a month to do it, plus I’m very lazy.

You can buy tahini in the foreign food mart in Itaewon and on iHerb and various other stores. It’s also very easy to make. Just place the garlic, sesame seeds, and olive oil in a blender and blend for a few minutes until the seeds have been pulverized.

Once the chick peas are blended place in a large bowl and stir in the tahini and lemon juice. Then the salt, pepper and cumin. Hummus is a very personal food, so start by adding a little of each at a time until you get a taste you’re happy with. A lot of factors can affect the taste of hummus so you rarely use the exact same amount of each ingredient every time. I always get the best results when the chick peas are warm.

To make the hummus cilantro flavoured, blend your cilantro with a little olive oil until you have a vibrant green oil then stir into the hummus. Use as much or as little as you need. Serve with your favourite dipping apparatus and enjoy. Voilà cilantro flavoured hummus.