Showing posts with label Garlic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garlic. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Garlic Roasted Hummus

If you’re tired of eating unhealthy chip dip and are searching for a healthy alternative, look no further. Hummus is a delicious alternative that you can easily make and enjoy on the fly. Besides being easy, hummus is rather good for you! The main reason for this is because of its simple yet nutritious ingredients.

Ingredients
8-10 cloves of garlic
16 oz chick peas
4 Tbsp Tahini paste
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp pepper flakes
1/3 tsp salt


Directions:

1)   The first thing we want to do is roast the garlic, so preheat the oven to 400° F. If you are going to roast the whole head of garlic, all you need to do is peel the outer most skin and then cut off the top ¼ inch from all of the cloves. I decided that I only wanted to make what I needed, so I removed and peeled the 10 cloves. Next you are going to lightly coat the garlic with about 1 tbsp of olive oil; make sure that the garlic is completely covered. Now, you are going to take your garlic cloves/head and wrap it in aluminum foil.

2)   Once your garlic is prepped and your oven is heated, you want to roast your garlic for about 20 minutes.

3)   While your garlic is roasting, you can take this time to get the rest of your ingredients ready. You will want to strain the chick peas and add them, including the rest of your ingredients to a blender or food processor.

4)   After the garlic is done roasting, carefully open the aluminum foil so the garlic can cool. Allow to cool for a few minutes. If you roasted the whole head of garlic, you will want to remove the necessary cloves. The individual skins on the cloves should be soft and pliable, so all you need to do is give the clove a little squeeze/push and it should pop right out. Now add the garlic to the blender.

5)   After all of the ingredients have been added, you want to blend/puree until it has a smooth texture. When I was blending, I had to stop the blender several times and manually push some of the ingredients around. Hummus has a thick consistency, so your blender might need a little help with getting things in the right place to properly mix together. You can always add a little bit of water or more oil if needed, so things get blended well.

6)   Now all you need to do is enjoy with chips or pita bread! It’s as simple as that!

Food For thought

I have been eating this like crazy for the last two days; I guess I am making up for not eating any over the course of the last couple years! I think next time, I might throw the whole head of garlic in there or maybe just a raw clove or two. My first batch was really delicious, but I am a huge garlic fan and I wouldn’t mind just a bit more garlic kick in there! I also used Milanese Gremolata as my olive oil, which I think made the lemon taste come out just a tad much. I’m not sure if I was looking in the wrong places, but it took me forever to find chick peas and the tahini, thankfully my searching paid off and a Meijer had some. If you are having issues finding the tahini, which is a sesame paste, you could always try making it yourself!

Thanks for stopping in, and I hope you enjoy this easy and delicious recipe! Please like, comment and share. I would love to hear what you think or what you might change.
Till next time,


~Mr. McLovin

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

G Is For Garlic

I LOVE garlic! Garlic is overflowing with flavor and has several health benefits that are linked to cardiovascular health. Even if you’re not a huge fan of this pungent herb, you only need to add just a bit to help enhance the dish and help bring out the rest of the flavors.

Have you ever tried FRESH garlic? Neither have I… But I am on a mission to get my hands on some this season! After reading online about how you should buy seeds and just pass on growing  garlic from your local produce section, I promptly grabbed the last few bulbs I had laying around and tossed them in some soil to see how they will turn out. Sadly, they didn't turn out very well. They grew pretty quickly at first, but it didn’t take long for them to wither away to nothing. I’m not too sure why they died, it might have been my inexperience with garlic that killed them or it very well could have been that store bought garlic is for eating and not growing. It seems like different sources tell you different things when it comes to growing garlic, but I plan on using a unique variety of seeds the next time I give growing garlic a shot. Why grow some boring store bought variety when you can grow something completely new and exciting? The world of garlic is a pretty big one, there is all kinds of varieties to choose from depending on what you love about garlic.

Garlic can be broken into two main subspecies, hard necked and soft necked. These two varieties have some subtle and some drastic differences, About.com does a great job of listing the differences between the two. It seems that soft necked garlic is the most commonly sold in stores, so I might have to try growing the hard necked variety to see what I have been missing out on.

Tomorrow, I will be covering horseradish… I have never actually used this spicy root, but I might be willing try it one day!

Till next time,


~Mr.McLovin