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Recipe: A Healthy Start To The Day – Hummus Toast With Veggies

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Trying to incorporate a lot of protein into my meals is how this hummus toast loaded with veggies came into being. It’s just perfect for right after my workout, when I’m most hungry. Putting it together is easy on mornings when there has been hummus and pita bread at home for dinner the previous evening. The leftover hummus is put to good use with this lovely toast, or else eaten as a snack with fruit later in the day.

Hummus originated in West Asia and is a versatile dish which utilises protein-rich chickpeas. I have shared two very appetizing hummus recipes on this blog so far. If you would like to make the hummus rather than buy it, you could choose from this coriander hummus or this curry leaf and green chilli hummus. For a plain and basic hummus, just eliminate the flavouring ingredients from the recipe.

The boost of protein aside, another reason why I enjoy this hummus toast with veggies as my morning meal is probably because of the novelty factor. It is so different from the kind of breakfasts that I grew up with, and I often find myself dreaming about travels past and future when I prepare something from another cuisine. Instagram also inspires me, and I love learning about dishes from everywhere, and figuring out how to fit them into my repertoire at home.

While authentic Indian breakfasts are absolutely wonderful, and traditionally wove the logic of seasonality into them, they also tend to be carb-heavy. I am not trying to find fault with them at all, for I understand that they were primarily designed for people from historical periods when everyone needed to labour a lot more, and usually had much less to consume or choose from. But as we move with the times, we need to adjust these diets to suit our contemporary needs. Now, for our present lifestyles, we need fewer carbohydrates and much more protein. I still remain an advocate of Indian cuisine, but I am equally a believer in adapting, evolving and exploring!

You can use any chopped salad as a topping for this toast, although I’ve suggested my preferred ingredients below. I’d also like to share a tip about cutting vegetables. In the morning, I make sure that my vegetables are finely chopped because I have a tendency to gobble breakfast up as quickly as possible post-workout. Knowing this about myself means that I not only cut my vegetables in a certain way at that time, but also that I cut them differently for my lunch preparations. When cooking for the afternoon meal, the vegetable slices are always larger in size, so that I take my time to chew them properly and digest them better. Small changes like these make us more mindful about both cooking and eating. It’s all about calibrating our choices so that they suit us well.

Hummus Toast With Veggies

1 slice sourdough bread
2 tablespoons hummus
Salad (as per recipe below, or make your own)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Veggies
¼ cup parsley (finely chopped)
¼ cup coriander leaves (finely chopped)
¼ cup cucumber (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons onions (finely chopped)
Salt to taste

Toast a slice of sourdough bread. Add the dollop of hummus and spread it over the toast.

Put all the finely chopped salad ingredients in a bowl and mix.

Sprinkle the salad over the hummus on toast. Finally, drizzle some olive oil. Your hummus toast with veggies is now ready to be enjoyed.

I have shared many toasties here on this blog. You probably know that I am a big fan of sourdough, based on how often I have used it in recipes here. It tastes fantastic on the day it is baked but turns hard by the following day, which is when it becomes ideal for toasties. So this hummus on toast with veggies joins that list too, bringing more pep – and of course, more protein – into my mornings, and hopefully yours too!

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Recipe: Happy Snacking – Coriander Hummus

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These days, we seem to be entertaining quite a bit at home. This is partly because our kids are all grown up and live in other cities. As parents, we feel proud of their achievements and love it when they visit, but we are also filling up our “empty nest” with friends and socialising as a couple. With people dropping by on a frequent basis, I try to make sure that a steady repertoire of healthy snacks, that are also good-looking and good-tasting, are easily whipped up. This beautiful pistachio-green coriander hummus hits the right spot in terms of its visual appeal, its nutrition quotient as well as its deliciousness.

Hummus originates in the Middle East and I make some whenever I prepare my versions of Lebanese dishes such as pita bread and falafels. It’s quite a favourite at home, and we are currently in an obsessed phase (do you have this habit too – of enjoying a dish so much that you just have to keep having it till you get tired of it and move on to the next big addiction?), so I’m making lots and lots of it.

The idea came to me after noticing colourful hummus varieties such as beetroot hummus, which comes out in a pretty pink. I wanted to use an Indian ingredient as a major one, and coriander seemed perfect. I had explored a curry leaf and green chilli hummus quite a while back too, which has a similar concept.

This dish contains one more surprise ingredient from our local backyards that you’re sure to love, and which you may remember from a recent recipe! If you guessed moringa, you are right. The powder is easy and quick to make, and I like to sprinkle a bit over the hummus to boost its healthiness, as well as to deepen the colour. I’ll probably try out a moringa hummus soon.

Hummus is truly simple to make, and the method for most varieties is more or less the same. In my family, different members have their own preferred type – curry leaf, beetroot, coriander, etc – so I am constantly whipping up some version of this dish and can assure you that it’s a basic recipe. In fact, it is quite easy to replace the coriander with other vegetables. You can see in the photographs that I’ve done a beetroot one too, using roasted beets. That one is more colourful than flavourful, but it is good for novelty in presentation. Guests love pretty snacks, remember?

Chickpeas are the core ingredient, and they are available abundantly in India so I don’t have to resort to the canned ones, although those will work just as well if they’re what you have on hand. I do the traditional method of soaking, boiling and so on – which is very familiar from so many Indian dishes. It’s funny: my cook at home, who is not well-versed in foreign cuisines, calls any kind of hummus “channa ka chutney” (“chickpea chutney”). He is not far from the truth! Several of the ingredients really do feel rather local, and are certainly used in Indian cuisines.

That said, despite its seeming Indian-ness, I was not exposed to hummus while growing up either. I discovered through my travels and culinary explorations that it’s a fantastic starter. It is healthy, tasty, simple to make and versatile in its usage as a dip. Despite the high summer temperatures at the moment, it keeps well in the fridge for at least a week.

Coriander Hummus

(Yield: 1 portion)

¼ cup chickpeas

Water (to soak and to boil)

2 tablespoons tahini

½ cup coriander leaves

Salt to taste

3 pods garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped jalapeños

 

Soak the chickpeas overnight in sufficient water. Once soaked, they will have enlarged in size to almost 1 cup. Strain them.

Boil the chickpeas in fresh water in a pressure cooker with sufficient water, until tender to the touch. This will take about six whistles.

Once boiled, strain the chickpeas from the hot water. Set the water aside. This is called aquafaba. Aquafaba, boiled chickpea water, becomes an ingredient of its own with varied uses including as an egg substitute!

In a blender, add the tahini, salt, jalapeños, coriander leaves and garlic. Blend coarsely.

Next, add the boiled chickpeas. Now, add as much aquafaba as required to help blend the mixture once again until you have a creamy texture.

Spread the hummus onto a flat dish. Garnish with olive oil and any toppings of your choice. If you have za’tar, a spice combination commonly used in Middle Eastern cooking, you could sprinkle some. As I mentioned earlier, moringa powder is my preferred substitute.

Your coriander hummus is now ready to serve. Eat it with the accompaniments of your choice. It goes perfectly with chips, vegetable sticks, apple slices, pita bread, falafels and more.

As I said earlier, you can swap out the coriander for other kinds of vegetables. You can also use sprinklings of different condiments or flavours. Let your imagination go wild – this is a basic, safe dish that responds well to play. Thinking out loud, a hint of mint could also be a nice flavour contrast. Maybe I’ll try that next time. Or maybe you can, and if so I hope you’ll let me know what the results are like?

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Recipe: South India Meets The Middle East – Curry Leaf & Green Chilli Hummus

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With the festival of Navaratri coming up, when chickpeas are served to guests in many homes in a simple dish called sundal, I had the humble legume on my mind once again. Only this time, I felt inspired to pair it with another ingredient that’s an essential in every South Indian home: the curry leaf. With the occasional rains we are enjoying in Chennai at the moment, my curry leaf bush has been in full bloom. And when I have so much in my garden or farm, you know that it usually tends to go straight into my kitchen. I took these two local ingredients and put them together in a fusion dish: curry leaf and green chilli hummus.

Hummus is a Middle Eastern dish that is a part of daily cuisines in that part of the world, and is usually eaten with breads. It’s also popular everywhere as a party snack, a perfect dip for everything from sliced vegetables to skewered meat. I’ve tasted a lot of beetroot hummus, so I knew that the basic puree lends itself well to flavourings. That’s when my curry leaves caught my eye.

Also known as “sweet neem”, curry leaf is an ingredient that we almost take for granted in our Indian kitchens. Tempered or fresh sprigs are thrown into curries, the powder is eaten with rice, and so on. It adds flavour to so many dishes that it’s just a ubiquitous part of our cooking. With a range of health benefits, including antioxidant and anti-diabetic properties, it’s no wonder that our ancestors incorporated it into as many meals as they could.  Now that I grow curry leaves in my own home, I have been learning a little about the plant too. Did you know that the tiny berries, which are not used in cooking, are actually high in Vitamin C – but that their seeds are poisonous?

Long ago, my hummus attempts would be so mediocre that a good friend would send me tubs as I so enjoyed the dish. Over time, I learned how to make it and stopped depending on those shipments, just as I stopped depending on store-bought cakes and even began to experiement with homegrown ingredients. Trial and error is the key to learning, and by studying different recipes and adding my own touches, I finally arrived on a version I loved.

The main ingredient in hummus is the humble chickpea, which is a staple not only in the Middle East but all over India in its many forms. It’s eaten boiled for a healthy snack, powdered and roasted and used as a binder, and known by so many names – puttukadalai, chana dal, kabuli (did this come to us by way of Kabul, I wonder?), chole and so on. Abroad, you may know this legume as garbanzo beans. The darker variants have a higher iron content, while the chana dal I use for thus hummus is rich in protein and fibre, thus filling you quickly and also aiding weight loss. It is known to lower cholesterol and diabetic risk, and also has high zinc and folate content.

The traditional hummus has a bland, though satisfying, taste. I thought of how I could kick it up a notch. That’s when I decided to add the equally ubiquitous green chilli, which is rich in Vitamin C, great for digestion – and very piquant!

Tahini, which is made of ground white sesame, and olive oil round out the Middle Eastern flavours. Fortunately, these are widely available at good supermarkets in India and other countries. I used some wonderful olive oil I picked up in Portugal recently, which will be featuring in my blog soon.

The day after I made this curry leaf and green chilli hummus at home, I went to Goa and to my delight, my good friend the designer Wendell Rodricks served the very same dish in his home! I squealed! The coincidence was just too thrilling, and I wanted to share my recipe immediately, so you too can serve it soon.

Curry Leaf & Green Chilli Hummus

(Yield: 1 bowl)

 

Ingredients

1¼ cups cooked/boiled chickpeas

3-4 garlic cloves

1 tablespoon tahini

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

1 cup washed curry leaves

1 green chilli

Water

 

In a blender, add the curry leaves and green chilli with 2 tablespoons of water. Blend until you get a smooth paste. Keep aside.

Next, blend the soft cooked chickpeas along with garlic, tahini, salt, half the olive oil and lemon juice.  Blend well until the paste is smooth and looks creamy.

Now, add the blended curry leaf paste to the creamy chickpeas and whir once again until it all mixes well. Adjust the salt and lemon quantities to suit your taste.

If you feel it needs to be creamier, add more water or olive oil to the blend, until it achieves a dip-like consistency.

The curry leaf hummus is now ready to serve. You can have it the traditional way, with flatbreads, whether that’s the Middle Eastern pita or the North Indian naan. Or some healthy quinoa chips, for a wholesome snack. Crunchy vegetables like carrot or celery sticks, toasties, or rice crisps (to keep that South Indian sensibility) are also excellent accompaniments. With a mildly yet surprisingly flavourful curry leaf hummus like this – it’s the dip that’s the main dish, not the accompaniment!

And if you just can’t get enough of that flavour, why not try my curry leaf and raw mango cooler as well?

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