The Great Recession has made a big impact on the way I purchase and consume hummus. Sabra is my personal grocery store pre-made hummus favorite, with their offbeat but delicious flavor combos. But, at $4+ per container, it's just not worth it. I'm going to tell you how I sucked it up, bought a $6 jar of tahini (which will, no joke, probably last you 50+ batches of hummus!), and rocked my own hummus flavors at a deep discount.
This is one of those recipes where you can use whatever is in your refrigerator that you feel would be delicious in hummus. Rather than give you exact quantities, you should just use the quantity of each ingredient that:
1) Makes the hummus taste good
and
2) Creates the typical consistency of hummus
You can be creative here, but I chose to use the following:
1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes (if you don't use sundried tomatoes, you can use olives, hot peppers, roasted red peppers, etc. If the ingredient that you add is not inherently salty, add salt to taste)
1 small can of chick peas ($.99)
1 tablespoon of tahini (or more if you like the taste)
1 garlic clove
Lemon juice to taste
Water to the appropriate consistency (add small pours at a time!)
Black pepper to taste
About 1 tbsp olive oil (trying to keep it light, but you can add more if you aren't concerned about fat content...)
Throw all of the ingredients into a food processor or blender. If the hummus is too thick, add a tiny bit of water (but not too much - no one likes runny hummus!)
The total cost of this hummus is waaaaay less than $4 -- especially if you have most of this stuff already in your house. A small lemon juice is about a dollar and will last for many, many batches!
Enjoy!
