Hummus with my sweetie!

Solly has always been special, when it comes to his eating preferences.  This little guy has always had a more mature palate than you would expect from a child his age.  I was told that his preferences would change when he started school and was exposed to the taste preferences of his peers.  It has yet to happen.  This is the kid that will skip over deserts for extra veggies.  He is also that kid that will order a vegetarian meal, because just like his Mom, he doesn't have to eat meat at every meal.

One of his favorite snacks is hummus with veggies for dipping.  He can go through an entire container in one sitting.  Considering how expensive the store bought hummus can be, given the volume this cute little guy will go through, I had to do something.  As it turns out, hummus is one of the easiest things in the world to make, and depending on how much time you are willing to put into it, it can be really reasonable to make.

The main ingredients you will need are garbanzo beans, fresh lemon juice, sesame oil, and olive oil.  I only use a little of the sesame oil for flavor.  If you have tahini it is great here as a substitute.  I didn't have any on hand, so I opted for sesame oil.  For the garbanzo beans (aka Chickpeas), there are two options here, canned or dried.  If you go for the dried option, soak them in water overnight then cook them in a slow cooker for a couple hours until they are fully cooked (a slow cooker on low overnight is perfect!).  If you are willing to take this step, you save a few dollars on your hummus.  We opted for canned to save time.  It also made it easier for him to help. If you use the canned, just make sure to drain and rinse off the excess starch from the beans.

Once you have your ingredients ready to go, throw them in the food processor, less the olive oil, and let it go.  I used the olive oil to help the hummus get a nice creamy texture.  It takes a bit of time to achieve the texture I love, so have patience and it will get there.  I added the olive oil a tablespoon at a time until I was happy with the result.

Now, if this post was for me, I would have ended here.  But we are talking about Solly here.  This little monster LOVES olives.  He won't eat pizza without olives, preferably black and green.  He will also chow down on them for a snack.  One of his favorite store hummus has an olive tapenade on top.  So naturally, we had to go there.  We went about half and half with kalamata olives and sliced green olives.  I had to work on the olives while Solly was working on opening the garbanzo bean cans.  Otherwise we would have had the thought of our olive topping and Solly's tummy would have been full of olives.  We blended the olives in a processor to get them chopped up to a fine tapenade. 

My plan worked!  Solomon is now hooked on making his own hummus.  This recipe is so easy that a seven year old can make it, with minimal supervision.  The best part is that because we made it at home, there are no preservatives it in, and he now knows exactly what goes into his favorite snack!