Hummus-The Easiest One, Served With Rustic Bread Made With Helen's Brilliant Bread Mix

Can you imagine your pasta without bread, or breakfast without toasted slice of bread? How boring the tea-time will be without sandwiches? Would you like to have you favourite tomato soup without toasted bread? Bread- brown or white, with or without nuts, sweet or savoury, soft or rough- whatever- but it is the only perfect partner for any main course.

Baking bread from starch is a tedious task and I generally stay away from the recipes that have tons of steps to follow and lots of ingredients to use. But no one can deny the fact that -home cooked bread is the best- the texture, the colour, and the aroma-all blissful and satisfying. Thus recently when I was sent Helen’s Bread Mix for review, I was so excited to use it- all you needed was 2 minutes to mix and 3 ingredients to add. The recipe called to use loaf tin, but I am not a huge fan of loaf breads, I like the ones that has rustic and rural feel to it; hence I baked in rough oval shape; but I am sure it will be awesome if baked in a loaf pan. The instructions were easy to follow and the overall process was so much fun -it took 40 minutes for the bread to bake. Soft from inside and hard crust outside- perfect!!

Next time when you are having a party or a get-together, keep few packets of Helen’s bread mix in your kitchen pantry. The process is simple and saves lot of time; you can serve the bread with roasted cherry tomatoes as bruchettas; or accompany with red wine pasta; or toast and serve with burnt chilli tomato soup. Or if like me you are in summery mood, pair it up with hummus- the classic Mediterranean dip.

When you think of summer, what comes in your mind? How about a quick dip with splash of olive oil and dash of lemon juice? Hummus has it all- the flavours, the zing and the touch of sunshine. It is the most popular dip in the Middle East (and now in the world) and is prepared using chickpeas/garbanzo beans and is served with bread.  The authentic hummus recipe needs tahini (paste of sesame seeds and olive oil) but I did not use it and it was still smooth, velvety and tasty- just like authentic ones.

Everyone have their own way and recipe for making hummus- with our without garlic, with or without thaini, with or without olive oil. This is my way- with lots of olive oil, green chilli, garlic, roasted cumin powder, sea salt and lemon juice- all blended to rich and silky dip. For the perfect finish serve with roughly broken toasted bread.

Ingredients:

2 cups boiled chickpeas/garbanzo beans/chole

2 cloves garlic/lehsun

1 green chilli/hari mirchi

1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder/kali mirch

1 teaspoon roasted cumin powder/bhuna jeera powder

Juice from 1 lemon

Sea salt to taste

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon water

Method:

In the grinder/food processor add in chickpeas, 1/2 teaspoon roasted cumin powder, lemon juice, garlic, 4 tablespoons olive oil, water, green chilli, salt and black pepper powder. Blend to smooth paste.

Take a wide bowl and spread the grinded paste in it. Make swirls with spoon and drizzle remaining olive oil and roasted cumin powder. Serve.

Notes:

You can also use canned chickpeas. Make sure to wash and drain well.

Use any salt, but sea salt does give the best taste.

Always use good quality olive oil. I used this one . If in India, you can use this one.

Serving ideas:

I served with roughly broken toasted bread, to do the same- put in the preheated oven at 180C for 10 minutes.

For health conscious people- serve with carrot and/or cucumber sticks.

You can also serve with crackers or biscuits.

Moreover you can make the whole serving platter. Serve on a large tray with vegetables kebabs, baked salted crackers and some salad.

Disclaimer: I was not paid or told to write positive review. The post is based on my experience and is unbiased. Thanking Helen's for sending Brilliant Bread Mix to review.