I haven’t had much time lately to cook or plan out meals like I should. I’ve been in four different cities (Baltimore, Orlando, NYC, and Atlanta) in the past 2 weeks and traveling like a mad woman! I am really looking forward to just being at home the rest of this month and hankering back down in the kitchen doing what I love most – cooking fresh organic food.
One of the quickest dishes I’ve been making for dinner lately is a Hummus Mezze Plate. This dinner has been a savior when I am just too wiped to cook at the end of a long day, coming home from traveling or I’m just tight on time in general. The plate is so easy to put together and I get to have a huge dose of raw vegetables. I feel great after eating this instead of the other obvious fast food choices that are available when you eat out.
If you’ve read my previous post on hummus, you know that I don’t ever buy pre-made hummus. One of the key ingredients food manufacturers like to use (among other things) is “citric acid” and this is usually derived from corn and likely genetically modified.
The plate is centered around a quick batch of my everyday homemade hummus. I make a huge batch usually on Sundays, so I can have access to it throughout the week. I top the hummus off with marinated olives (store bought from either Earth Fare or Whole Foods) and then add various vegetables, whole grains and cheese to compliment and dip in the hummus.
I’ve used a variety of accompaniments – whatever I have in the fridge including:
- Brocoli
- Carrots
- Cucumbers
- Red Peppers
- Yellow Peppers
- Green Peppers
- Celery
- Grape Tomatoes
- Diced goat cheese cubes
- Sheep’s milk feta cheese cubes
- Mary’s Gone Sticks & Twigs
- Ezekiel Tortilla (Cut into pieces, sprayed with olive oil and baked at 350 degrees for 7mins)
- Ezekiel Whole Wheat Pita Pockets (Cut into pieces, sprayed with olive oil and baked at 350 degrees for 7mins)
- Ezekiel Corn Tortillas – (Cut into pieces, sprayed with olive oil and baked at 350 degrees for 7mins)
My husband likes the portion size of 2 pitas and doesn’t like raw broccoli – so I add more of the other vegetables for him, you can really customize it however you like and that’s the beauty of this dish.
- 2 cans of Eden Farms Garbanzo Beans
- 4 tbsp tahini
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ¼ tsp whole cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp fresh cracked black pepper
- a handful of parsley
- juice of one lemon
- Drain garbanzo beans and give them a quick rinse
- Combine all ingredients except olive oil in food processor/blender and blend
- Once combined, scrape sides
- Start blending again and add olive oil slowing into mixture while it is blending
- Remove all hummus into an air tight container and serve or refrigerate up to 5 days
- Top with marinated olives and accompany with a variety of vegetables, pita chips and goat cheese for a main dish or appetizer platter.
I love having this recipe in my arsenal of fast dishes, hope you do too!
Food Babe
P.S. For a variation, also try my beet sweetened hummus. (FYI – kids love it!)
I love plates like this! Good to know about the hummus, I need to get back into making my own again!
Hi! Nice to hear from you Gillian …. hope married life is treating you fabulous
Awesome! Where do you get the spray olive oil from? I use to use the Pam spray olive oil until I found it it has propane in it. I’ve missed how easy it was, though!
I bought this one on Amazon recently and I like it much better than the one I used to have which broke! It’s made out of glass too
http://amzn.to/Q5Go7x
Add lemon zest to get a little more lemon kick.
I like the idea of adding Cumin to it. I have not bought it in the stores for ages either.. but will certainly give this recipe a try this week.
Something I do when I have an extra 5-10 minutes is take the shells off the beans. This makes the hummus really creamy!
I love to make hummus. A week ago I got a little carried away with the amount of beans that I soaked, so I just made a double batch and froze half of it. I think it will do fine. I’m just about out of the first half so we’ll soon find out.
Love your mezze plate!
is there any commercial hummus you would buy? I am the only one who likes it and have to throw so much away when I make my own. Mine doesn’t freeze well, and if I try to make a small amount it never seems to taste right. There are some at my local natural food store that just have beans, tahini and specific seasoning or vegetables (not the generic trap) that I buy and add flavor too.
Also, I can never find beets here. I’m told that they don’t grow well here in florida, would you ever buy canned? (Normally i won’t do canned anything)
I can’t find them, either! I’m in New Mexico. We have a great produce section at my nearby grocery store but never any beets.
Hey Vani, I thought you might like to know what Stonyfield is doing against GMO’s. I just stumbled upon this: http://www.tweet2defeat.com/?utm_source=Silverpop&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Stonyfield%20Moos%20-%20October%202012%20%282%29&utm_content=&spMailingID=39836789&spUserID=MjQwMzg4MDk5NjAS1&spJobID=162440499&spReportId=MTYyNDQwNDk5S0
Kind of a cool program for awareness!
You were in Orlando??? Did you find any great places to eat or stay at? By the way, the hummus plate looks great!
This is fantastic! Thanks for the perfect idea! I’m going to use Food For Life brown rice tortillas, and make my own hummus, too. I’m going to use cayenne pepper and lemon or lime. Yum! I love this!
I’m so glad you wrote this; I thought citric acid was just lemon juice but upon reading the wikipedia article on it; it isn’t! It is exactly what you say it is! I had no idea and will keep that in mind when reading any labels in future.
Does (organic) tahini really go bad? Should I pay close attention to expiration dates?
I had a lot of trouble making this blend since it was so dry and there’s no liquid besides the olive oil (and a little lemon) which is added at the end. I had to add water to make it work. Am I missing some step or is there maybe supposed to be some liquid added?
The store-bought also has sodium benzoate.
I am not a fan of cumin. What else would you season the hummus with if you left it out?