Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Pizza Hummus and Cumin-Scented Sesame Flatbread

These recipes are from the cookbooks Appetite for Reduction and Vegan Planet.
Recipes: see page 484 of Vegan Planet and page 139 of Appetite for Reduction.
I love hummus. I think most vegans do. It's the ultimate vegan fast food. When you keep a
refrigerator full of vegetables, you need to have something in which to dip them, and hummus fits the bill. It's high protein, stores well (you can even freeze it), and can be flavored to pair with other foods.

Pizza Hummus - The 'pizza hummus' is from the vegan cookbook Appetite for Reduction, and so named because it is flavored with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil. Other ingredients include chickpeas (and reserved liquid), lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and paprika. I thought the author, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, has a good idea for combining the ingredients. I've always just dumped everything into a food processor. Her instructions say to begin by pulsing the chickpeas and garlic, then adding the liquids, then the spices. I think this works out much better because the hummus has a smoother texture.

Cumin-Scented Sesame Flatbread - This was my third attempt at making flatbread, and I like it with this hummus because it makes a nice pizza theme. I had no idea flatbread was so easy. No yeast, no waiting a couple hours for the dough to rise, then another hour for it to bake and cool. It's just flour, salt and water that is kneaded for 15 minutes, and in this case, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with cumin and sesame seeds before going into the frying pan. The flatbread recipe is from Robin Robertson's cookbook Vegan Planet.