Tara Riddle: Hummus plate (recipe)

As summer draws near, I am sure there are some of us (me) out there who are thinking about eating a bit healthier so we feel more comfortable in our swimsuits. Or maybe we are eating a healthier lunch or dinner so that we can have our chocolate cake and Netflix later on that night.

Or maybe it is just a delicious meal and we love our veggies!

I have eaten this dish several times in the past few months. I could say that I am addicted to it. Every time I take that first bite, I say to myself “OMG, this is fantastic.” It’s great as a solo dish, or you can serve it as a side dish with some barbecue meat on the side. You can buy hummus from the store, but I make my own. It’s simple and easy. All you need is a small food processor.

Hummus Ingredients:

2 cans of garbanzo beans

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 lemon juiced and zest

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

1 frozen bag of shelled edamame beans

1 package of portobello mushrooms

Plain Greek yogurt

Curry spice

Ginger spice

Pita flatbread

Let us start with roasting the cauliflower. We can do a lot of other preparation while this is in the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Chop up your cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Put your bite sized pieces into a mixing bowl. Season well with olive oil, salt, pepper, curry, and ginger spice. You can use however much or little of the curry and ginger that you like. I like my seasonings, so I am pretty heavy handed with the spices. Pour the seasoned cauliflower onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes.

Next let's make our hummus. Feel free to buy hummus from the grocery store. However, hummus is really easy to make, and I like knowing there are only a handful of ingredients in mine, so I just make it. Get your food processor out. Drain the liquid from your garbanzo beans, then pour the beans into the food processor. Zest your lemon and add that, and the juice from one whole lemon. Add your minced garlic and olive oil. Use your food processor and blend until it’s a nice paste. You can add salt and pepper as well. If you like your hummus thicker, add less olive oil. If you like it creamier, add 3 tablespoons or more if you like. It’s all about taste testing while you work to get the desired result. You can put this in some Tupperware and refrigerate.

Next we will slice up our mushrooms. Use however many you like. The mushrooms are just a part of the layers. A lot of people don’t like mushrooms. Feel free to omit or replace them. Sautee your mushrooms in a skillet with olive oil, salt and pepper. Get them a little golden brown and then turn the heat off and set to the side.

The edamame beans can get microwaved, or if you are against that you can add them to the mushrooms. We just want to defrost them. For some reason, the combination of edamame beans and hummus absolutely works for me.

Take your pita breads and give them a quick warm up in a skillet pan. We just want to crisp it up a bit.

Finally, we plate! You can treat this like a seven-layer dip on individual plates. With grilled pita sliced and spread around it.

First, we spoon some hummus on our plate and we gently and carefully use the underside of the spoon and spread the hummus in a circular motion so that it spreads evenly in a thin layer around our plate. Then we want to add a small spoonful of plain Greek yogurt, and do the same thing. Use the underside of your spoon to spread on top of the hummus layer. Now you have a thin layer of hummus, and a thin layer of yogurt. Next, we add our edamame beans and make a nice layer of that. Then add a layer of cauliflower, and last a layer of mushrooms. Use your grilled pita to scoop and dip! Delicious!

Serve with a glass of white or rose wine. Maybe even a nice grilled steak or chicken to beef it up a bit.

Enjoy! Please email me at Tara@The-Mindful-Realtor if you have any questions. Tag me on Facebook with your pictures of your meal!