Being in a new place like Santiago, here are a few of the things I’ve learned recently:
There’s not a lot of Middle Eastern food in Chile
1 cup of dried chickpeas produces a lot of cooked chickpeas
I’m willing to pay an obscene amount of money for tahini
Ever since I bought a bag of dried garbanzo beans at the market weeks ago, I’ve been wanting to make hummus. I even purchased celery and pita bread in anticipation so I would have things to eat with the hummus once I finally made it. But I was missing one thing, something I was told could not be found in Chile, tahini. The magic ingredient that makes hummus, well, hummus. Without it, I simply don’t think it can be done properly. Therefore I was devastated, crushed really, when I heard the news that there simply was no sesame paste in Chile. I knew it had to be a lie. Plus, I thought I had spotted it at the store one day and foolishly decided to buy it later. Alas, I moved and I could not remember where I saw the tahini. This of course made me all the more determined to find it and I decided to look at the enormous store (almost like the Target of Chile) called Jumbo, at the base of the newly constructed Costanera Center.
I arrived, full of hope that I would find the key ingredient within the great depths of the store. Despite getting sidetracked at a tasting stand in the store giving away Kir Royals in plastic champagne glasses, I plunged ahead. I searched every aisle I could think of and filled my cart with far too many things before I finally ended up in the first aisle I started in, the spice aisle. In front of me was a man desperately scoping the shelves for something but having no luck. I then decided too that I would look hard and simply hope for success. As I scanned the bottles of sauce and paste I finally ran across a bottle which read Tahina, Spanish for tahini. It was the last bottle. And it also cost a small fortune. I weighed the options, hummus without tahini after I’d looked so long and hard or get over the cost of the (last) bottle and have amazing hummus as a result. As you can guess from this post, I chose the latter.
I hope you enjoy and may you have an easier time finding tahini wherever you are!
Hummus (adapted from Mark Bittman)
*2 cups drained well-cooked or canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans), liquid reserved
1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more as needed
2 cloves garlic, peeled, or to taste
Salt to taste
Fresh parsley leaves for garnish
Paprika for garnish
Directions:
1) Put everything except the parsley and paprika in a food processor and begin to process; add the chickpea liquid or water as needed to allow the machine to produce a smooth puree.
2) Taste and adjust the seasoning (maybe you like more garlic, smoother hummus, more lemon, etc).
3) Serve, drizzled with the olive oil and sprinkled with a bit of paprika and some parsley for garnish (totally optional, I obviously did not do this). Eat as an appetizer with toasted pita bread or veggie sticks or spread on sandwiches, falafel, anything you like.
*Note: 1 cup of dried chickpeas produces about 2 cups of cooked chickpeas
