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Hummus Mezze Plate

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.

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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.

Food Babe’s Everyday Hummus Mezze Plate
 
Prep time
Total time
 
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 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
Instructions
  1. Drain garbanzo beans and give them a quick rinse
  2. Combine all ingredients except olive oil in food processor/blender and blend
  3. Once combined, scrape sides
  4. Start blending again and add olive oil slowing into mixture while it is blending
  5. Remove all hummus into an air tight container and serve or refrigerate up to 5 days
  6. Top with marinated olives and accompany with a variety of vegetables, pita chips and goat cheese for a main dish or appetizer platter.
Notes
***Choose all organic ingredients if possible***

 

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!)

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29 responses to “Hummus Mezze Plate

  1. 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!

      1. Was it by chance a Misto? My Misto just broke after a couple of years, maybe I will look into the glass one you posted.

  2. 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.

  3. 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!

  4. 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)

    1. 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.

  5. You were in Orlando??? Did you find any great places to eat or stay at? By the way, the hummus plate looks great!

  6. 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!

  7. 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.

    1. Not to be rude but you must be reading something completely different. Wikipedia says nothing of what she says. I already know what it is before reading but I was confirming. It’s a natural preservative derived from citrus fruits hence the word citrus in it. So yes one citrus it’s from are lemons. Just saying…

      1. Here it is, straight from the Wiki :

        “In 1917, American food chemist James Currie discovered certain strains of the mold Aspergillus niger could be efficient citric acid producers, and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer began industrial-level production using this technique two years later, followed by Citrique Belge in 1929.

        In this production technique, which is still the major industrial route to citric acid used today, cultures of A. niger are fed on a sucrose or glucose-containing medium to produce citric acid. The source of sugar is corn steep liquor, molasses, hydrolyzed corn starch or other inexpensive sugary solutions.[10] After the mold is filtered out of the resulting solution, citric acid is isolated by precipitating it with calcium hydroxide to yield calcium citrate salt, from which citric acid is regenerated by treatment with sulfuric acid, as in the direct extraction from citrus fruit juice.”

        So it goes like this :
        1. mold on corn steep liquor, molasses, hydrolyzed corn start (or other inexpensive sugary solutions)
        2. they filter out the mold
        3. precipitate it with calcim hydroxide and
        4.treat it with sulfuric acid.

        Where exactly is the lemon ?

  8. 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?

  9. I am not a fan of cumin. What else would you season the hummus with if you left it out?

  10. Love your posts, wholeheartedly. I have stopped buying many things that are not raw in the stores now, but I found this product at Whole Foods and wanted to ask about it. The Way Better Snacks company (non-gmo, gluten free, somewhat organic ingredients, no MSG) makes a new line of chips called Pita-aah and they are sprouted grains. I can easily make my own chips but sometimes need something crunchy for a quick snack on the go. Thoughts on these???

  11. Great recipe – thanks. Do you ever use dried garbanzo beans? I have a great source for bulk, dried, organic garbanzo beans. I assume I can soften, just like normal, then use them in your recipe above.
    Thanks for all you do

  12. Does anyone know if citric acid in an organic product would be derived from GMO corn? I travel a lot so need healthy store bought snacks at times.

  13. I love that you post recipes like this, BUT, PLEASE give us nutritional values, especially carb counts. diabetics everywhere will thank you!

  14. Go Mediterranean! I make a 5 ingredient hummus – 1 can organic garbanzo beans drained , 4 tbsp tahini, 1 garlic clove , 1/4 c lemon juice, and 1 tsp sea salt . For creamier add 1/2 c water. Optional – drizzle olive oil and sprinkle parsley on it. Can’t wait for your book Foodbabe!

  15. Made this last night…very good!!! I didn’t have tahini so I just used a little extra olive oil, also added a little lemon zest and apple cider vinegar. Delish!

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