What is humus?

[Smiles Jr.]

I volunteer two mornings a week for a soup kitchen. I'm the guy who drives around in the wee hours of the morning to all the donor stores and businesses to pick up and deliver the food for the week.

I stop at a food processing company and once in a while they provide boxes of 1 lb. containers of assorted chip dips, sour cream, cheese toppings, and humus.

One morning I opened one of the red chili humus containers and took a swipe with my finger to taste it. It was the consistency of thick sour cream with something slightly gritty in there. The flavor was kind of OK but certainly not something I would pay money for. I threw the little container in the dumpster.

What is it and what is it used for?

 

[wifezilla]

humus is squished up chick peas (garbonzo beans). It is used as a spread or a dip.

I wouldn't pay money for it either!

 

[vfem]

I hate store bought hummus! YUCK

I do make a humus I like, its the chick peas, with oven roasted squash, oven roasted garlic and onions. Then through that together in the food processor with evoo. I think its fantastic, even though I buy the chick peas in a can.

Never judge the food you would or wouldn't want to eat unless its fresh made.... processed foods are generally junk.

 

[patandchickens]

LOL -- humus with one "m" is the part-decomposed coarse organic matter in soil, like forest leaf litter on its way to turning into soil

Hummus, with two "m"s (anyhow that's the usual north american spelling, not to say that some people don't carry on spelling it with one m regardless), is a middle-eastern spread made from pureed chickpeas (=garbanzo beans) and tahini (=sesame butter) and olive oil, usually flavored with lemon juice and garlic but these days popular in supermarkets with all sorts of other dumb things added.

Good hummus is a really good thing IMO (although obviously tastes vary) -- you can eat dabs of it using chunks of bread or tortilla, or use it as a dip, or as a spread in a wrap, or even just a few spoonfuls for a snack when you're feeling peckish.

However a lot of supermarket hummus is just bland and squishy and not very good, again in-my-opinion-and-of-course-tastes-differ.

It is SUPER easy to make yourself, from cooked or canned chickpeas and the other ingredients all whizzed in a food processor or blender til you like the result. (Food processor works better than blender, especially if you want a very fine texture, but it can be done in a decent blender. Or by hand, but not by me <g>)

Humus with one 'm' is also quite useful and easy to make yourself, but not generally as tasty

Pat

 

[Hollywood Gardens]

Hummus is often served on falafal with bread, it is also really good on grilled chicken.

I agree that the store one is horrible, but it is quite good made fresh.

Wiki actually describes it quite well this time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummus

 

[RickF]

I think you'll also find hummus in some places more than others.. You'll easily find it in tons of restaurants in the Los Angeles area where there's lots of cultural diversity.. One of the places my wife & I regularly have lunch at while working has both Hummus and Falafel on their menu (Falafel also being made of ground up chick peas but courser ground -- kinda a meatball of sorts sans the meat).. I've had both and while they're not something I'd eat daily I do eat them occasionally and enjoy them -- depending on who makes them.. (store bought hummus is out -- yuck!)

 

[ninnymary]

Oh, I LOVE hummus. The stuff you buy over here is actually very good. I love to spread it on warm corn tortillas, put some good quality deli turkey and a couple slices of avocado. Two of these tacos have around 500 calories and is very nutrious!

Mary

 

[elf]

I've never had any I didn't like, and it's an unjunk food snack.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

I have never had hummus but I have seen cooking shows that make it. It looks really good. I love chick peas and I am pretty sure I would like it but anyway the recipes I have seen use a mixture of beans, which also looked really good. I think it like grits, they are really good but only if you know how to cook them.

 

[PotterWatch]

I am another hummus lover. Of course, being Jewish, it is something that I am very familliar with and I eat it on a regular basis. I have had some store-bought hummus that wasn't very good but others that weren't bad. I prefer mine a little looser than the store-bought varieties usually are. I like making my own with not too much tahini and a lot of garlic. My favorite way to eat it is just dipping into it with some pita.