Carrots with Red Pepper Hummus

 

Wow! Finally I made  my hummus...my Sweeeet redpepper hummus.Few days back my colleague and I went to  Jason's deli . We  went there  to try their  salads because we heard a lot about their salad bar and just seen about everyone enjoy it in my office.And true to what I heard and saw, the salad bar was really quite  excellent with an amazing assortment of  veggies , pastas ,dressings, nuts  and all kinds of healthy stuff. On top of this the service was very friendly.This is where I eat this hummus and fell in love with it. I definitely wanted to try this at home and browsed a gazillion recipes in the Net and most hummus recipes were more or less like the one I have below. Some recipes called for anywhere between 1 to 3 cloves of garlic.But I felt even 1 clove of garlic was too pungent.So my suggestion would be to use just a half garlic clove.

Ingredients

chickpeas- 16 oz
tahini paste- 2 tblsp(Storebought or homemade--Toast sesame seeds just for few min in a fry pan and make a paste with enough vegetable oil. Tip: Need not toast until sesame seeds turn brown.)
garlic- 1/2 clove
olive oil - 1/4 cup
roasted red peppers - 2 nos(lenghty red  peppers)
salt - 1/2 tsp
blackpepper- 1/2 tsp

Method
Blend all the above ingredients in a food processor or blender to a smooth,creamy texture.
Serve with vegetables like
carrot sticks,
celery,
broccolli,
yellow or red peppers or more snacks like tortilla chips

 

The Italian Cook Book The Art of Eating Well by Maria Gentile

Foodies Read Challenge 2013

I dont know why I picked this book..may be this book was a Kindle freebie:-) Nah! Before I picked this book I had been to the library to see if I could find some good books and after much browsing and walking on the library floors I excitedly collected all my much hopeful books and went to the counter to be thrown into a surprise. Hmm.. I was asked to become a paid member. Suddenly I became a non resident. Anyway long story short I gave up all those books and ended up with my Kindle freebie book. Anyway that's the short story behind my first challenge book called 'Italian Cooking Art of Eating' by Maria Gentile . This cookbook is based from the 1920's or 1919 to be exact. It made  a pretty good read for a silent Friday evening . Learnt few Italian words if not a whole lot of recipes because most of the recipes were meat based and since I am a vegetarian it was incredibly hard for me to really bury myself into this book like I do with other vegetarian books.Most of the recipes were short, unembellished, cut the chase kinda recipes and would make perfect sense to the veteran Italian cook.

Some recipes that struck a chord with me,

Fried Eggplants(Melanzane Fritte)
Stuffed Tomatoes(Pomodori Ripieni)
Ravioli
Basic sauces like Tomato Sauce(Salsa di Pomidoro)
Some fruit based desserts ,puddings,cakes and syrups also  made an interesting read

Here are a few Italian  fun foodie words..to tickle your brain!!

Soups- Zuppa
Vegetables -
peas-Piselli/Spinach-Spinaci/Tomatoes- Pomodori/Onions- Cipolle/Cauliflower-cavolfiore/Cabbage- cavolo/Eggplants-melanzane
Others-
Omlette-frittata/ frying-fritto,Fried-fritte/Paste- pastella/Oven- forno/Icecream -gelato/Sauce- salsa

Foodies Read Challenge - Sous Chef Level

" Foodies Read sounds like a very interesting challenge to me and I am going to go to the library this weekend to  pick  some good food books and get started to read... Thanks Vicki for hosting this CHALLENGE! My list is currently empty but my goal is to read a food book a month and post about it!!! So here goes!! Interested bloggers and non-bloggers are welcome to join the bandwagon with me...

12.