{"id":694,"date":"2011-01-18T14:25:33","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T19:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/?p=694"},"modified":"2011-01-20T18:07:37","modified_gmt":"2011-01-20T23:07:37","slug":"hummus-spread-and-tuna-salad-on-pita-bread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/?p=694","title":{"rendered":"Hummus Spread and Tuna Salad on Pita bread"},"content":{"rendered":"

As i ran through my recipe book few nights ago , i found this recipe , how to make hummus . I though it seems easy , and i couldn’t actually imagine the taste . I know how garbanzo \/ chick peas taste like , but mashed ? and mixed with lemon juice , garlic , and sesame paste ? I don’t even know how sesame paste taste like . However , i do know how sesame seed or sesame oil taste like .. LOL , I use that a lot in chinese \/ asian cooking . We love experimenting with food , we love trying new stuff .. we’ve had Japanese , Thai , Vietnamese , Korean , Indian , Italian , Mexican , American (obviously) , Indonesian , French cuisine . But .. middle eastern \/ Mediterranean ? I never had them before ..<\/p>\n

So , to ease my curiosity , i put tahini aka sesame paste on my grocery list , unfortunately the grocery store we go to , only have this huge jar of sesame paste , and doesn’t look to appetizing since the oil already separate from the sesame paste itself .. I wondered if it’s getting too old and it’s been sitting on the shelf too long . Then it occured to me that we had a middle eastern restaurant near by , and it also has the grocery store .. of course carries middle eastern stuff . There we were , yesterday , walked into the middle eastern grocery store , me , asian chinese woman and my white caucasian husband , we never felt so out of place .. LOL .. just kidding .. but anyway .. we found what we’re looking for . Although they sell hummus in can , the ready made hummus , we didn’t buy it , because i wanted to make my own hummus .. and i needed to get tahini , sesame paste . We did ..<\/p>\n

I tried it this afternoon for our lunch , it turned out to be very tasty , delicious .. with a lil kick since i added red ground pepper . But me and my husband loved it , we both never had hummus before , i served it as a spread on pita bread and i also made tuna salad , put them together , and it was yummy !! The hummus with pita bread only was already tasty enough .. but it’s a good combination with the salad .<\/p>\n

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Here is how to make hummus :<\/p>\n

1 can of 15 oz garbanzo beans , drain and reserve the juice<\/p>\n

1 juice of lemon ( i don’t add all the juice , but i add a little at a time as i pulse them , i don’t like anything too lemony )<\/p>\n

2 cloves of garlic<\/p>\n

1\/2 tsp. of table salt or 1 tsp. of kosher salt<\/p>\n

1-2 tsp. of red ground pepper<\/p>\n

1\/3 cup of tahini or sesame paste ( look for this in middle eastern store )<\/p>\n

In a bowl of processor , put all ingredients together , pulse , until it comes to a very smooth and moist consistency , adding the water that you reserved as you needed if it’s too thick .<\/p>\n

Serve them on a pita bread , if you’d like to make the tuna salad , this is what you need :<\/p>\n

14 oz of tuna in oil<\/p>\n

1\/4 cup of celery , chopped<\/p>\n

3-4 tbsp. of yellow onion , chopped<\/p>\n

2 tbsp. mayonaisse<\/p>\n

1 tsp. dijon mustard<\/p>\n

freshly ground black pepper<\/p>\n

salt is optional , to me , the tuna is already salty i do not need to add more salt to it<\/p>\n

Mix all ingredients until it’s all blended . Then to assemble , broil pita bread for a minute or 2 , take them out , cut into 4 equal pieces , spread the hummus , add the tuna salad . Enjoy !<\/p>\n

PS : a friend of mine mentioned that she likes roasted red pepper hummus .. i thought why not trying it , by adding roasted red pepper to the original hummus .. i found recipe for that with a few changes i made<\/p>\n