Humous, houmous...?

"Food" is an odd word isn't it? Food, food, foooooood (say it a few times and you'll see what I mean) an "oo" sandwiched between the woolly consonants "f" and "d".  The word comes from the Old English foda, says the Online Etymology Dictionary (yes, that is what I do in my spare time, do you have a problem with that?) but that in itself comes from an old Germanic verb meaning "to feed": fodjan.  The word has still older roots in Greek and Latin as one might imagine from such a mongrel of a language as English; it is believed to have evolved from the stem of the Greek "pateisthai" and Latin "pastor", commonly understood to mean shepherd, but originally in fact "feeder".   Apparently words beginning in "P" in Latin often ended up as "F" in German, for reasons obscure to me until I get enough time to read deeper.

But why am I telling you this right? Well apart from the fact that words and their evolution is constantly fascinating to me and that I think it's sad that people don't care where their words come from, this post is about food.  Yes, I admit that that doesn't exactly explain the etymology lesson, but if you factor in the fact that my mind has a tendency to wander, it makes perfect sense.

Oddly enough I'm having difficulty thinking what food the word "food" would be if it were food! The idea is slightly too self referential for my sleep deprived head to contemplate, so I will have to save that for later.

But on with the recipe! Hummous(?) is one of my favourite foods, I probably eat it everyday, and what could be better than a delicious food? Why, a delicious food that you made yourself of course. So if, like me, you like hummus (how do you spell the damn thing?!) here's how you can make it.

Ingredients:

• Chickpeas                              240g (drained)
• Tahini (sesame seed paste)     1 tsp
• Olive oil                                  1 tbsp
• Lemon                                    juice of 1/2 to 1
• Garlic                                     1 clove
• Salt                                        to taste
• Pepper                                    to taste
• Paprika                                   sprinkle (optional)

Method:

• Drain the chickpeas and blend to a paste
• Finely chop the garlic 
• Squeeze the lemon
• Mix the chickpea paste, olive oil, tahini and garlic together in a mixing bowl.
• Add the juice from 1/2 the lemon
• Taste your humous so far and add salt and pepper and more lemon juice to your preference (personally I would add a few generous pinches of salt and the rest of the lemon juice or it tastes a little bland)
• Add around 100ml of water for a slightly thinner consistency (unless you really like it thick of course)

• Scrape into a bowl with a lid and sprinkle over a pinch of paprika for appearance and adorn with a sprig of basil, parsley or dill (lots of herbs go with humous)

It looks and tastes great and it is so quick!

I couldn't find any of the aforementioned herbs, so that is kale on the top, but you get the idea!