Amazing Hummus

I used to buy ready made hummus at the grocery store or, when I was feeling adventurous, I'd whip up a batch using tinned chickpeas.  That was before I tried this recipe from Ottolenghi's cookbook Plenty.  This recipe uses dried chickpeas and, once you try it, you will not go back to the others.  The texture is so creamy.  There is none of that cloying preservative taste so often found in the store bought versions.  Feel free to play with the taste by adding cumin or hot sauce or paprika or whatever tastes you crave.  The base is wonderful.  It also freezes well.  I tend to put ice cream scoops of the stuff onto a parchment lined baking sheet, freeze and then store in ziploc bags in the freezer so there's always some for the kids' lunches.  (Remember the vegetarian child?)  Defrosts easily in the microwave to be slathered onto a wrap, covered with veggies and rolled into lunch.

Hummus
 (Makes 8-10 cups)

2 1/2 c dried chickpeas
1 1/2 tbsp baking soda
1 1/4 c tahini paste
3 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
6 garlic cloves, crushed
salt

Put the chickpeas in a large glass or plastic bowl and cover with at least double the volume of cold water.  Add 1 tbsp baking soda.  Soak overnight.

Place soaked (drained) chickpeas and remaining baking soda in a medium saucepan and cover with double the volume of cold water.  Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 2-3 hours, until totally soft and easy to mush. Add more water during cooking if necessary to keep chickpeas immersed.  Drain, retaining cooking liquid.

Transfer warm chickpeas to a food processor and add tahini, lemon juice, garlic and 1 tsp salt.  Blitz for a minute or two until totally smooth.  Add some of the cooking liquid and blitz again.  You want the mixture to be soft and almost runny.  Taste and add more salt if you like.

This is best served warm but can be cooled and reheated or frozen (see above).  (It will get thicker when it cools so don't worry about making it too runny while warm.  Use your first attempt as a way to decide the texture you like best.)

Nigella Lawson's Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

I am a fan of Nigella Lawson recipes.  They are, for the most part, easy and straightforward.  The following recipe is from her cookbook - Nigella Kitchen - which contains many family friendly, quick and easy meals.  What I like about this recipe is that it is very tasty and quite simple.  It has that proper Italian restaurant tomato sauce taste, which I attribute to the pureed celery and onion mush that I was at first quite skeptical of.  The meatballs are easy to make and the cleanup is minimal as the meatballs cook in the tomato sauce.  We enjoyed this over pasta, but Nigella recommends couscous.  This will remain a staple in our home.  Although I haven't tried it, the original recipe says that it freezes well.

Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

• 1 onion, peeled
• 1 stick celery 
• 2 tbsp garlic oil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 x 400g/14oz cans chopped plum tomatoes, plus approximately 2 full cans of water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp sea salt flakes or ½ tsp pouring salt
• black pepper, to taste

• 500g/1lb 2oz ground turkey
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 3 tbsp grated parmesan (the Kraft kind rather than freshly grated)
• 2 tbsp finely chopped onion and celery (see above)
• 1 tsp worchestershire sauce
• ½ tsp dried thyme

For the sauce, put the onion and celery into a food processor and blitz to a mush. (Or you can chop as finely as humanly possible by hand.) Reserve 2 tablespoons of the mixture for the meatballs.

Warm the garlic oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan or casserole, add the onion and celery mixture, along with the thyme, and cook at a moderate to low heat, stirring every now and again, for about 10 minutes.

Add the cans of plum tomatoes, filling up each empty can with water to add to the pan. Season with the sugar, salt and pepper, stir well and let the mixture come to a bubble, then turn the heat down and simmer the sauce gently while you get on with the meatballs.

For the meatballs, put all the ingredients for the meatballs, including the reserved chopped onion and celery, and salt according to preference, into a large bowl and gently mix together with your hands. Don’t overmix, as that will make the meatballs dense-textured and heavy.

When all the meatball ingredients are amalgamated, start rolling them into balls. The easiest way is to pinch out an amount about the size of a generously heaped teaspoon and roll it into a ball between the palms of your hands. Put each meatball onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment or greaseproof paper. You should get about 50 little meatballs.

Drop the meatballs gently into the simmering sauce.

Let the meatballs simmer in the sauce for 30 minutes, or until cooked through. 

Serve with rice, pasta or couscous.