Hummus Co's Smoky Chipotle Hummus & Baba Ganoush

It looks like everyone's hopping onto the clean eating initiative these days; everywhere I turn I see "clean" menus, friends on the raw food diet, aunts cutting out all processed foods and ingredients, etc. So with Alena and me on our healthy kick, we've been looking up new recipes and any places in town that would help us sustain this diet. Three weeks in and we've been doing very well, I think!

Some friends of ours from work, Fariz and Aneesha, asked me last week if I'd like to try hummus and baba ghanoush by Hummus Co, a new home made gourmet food producer (company?) in KL. Hummus Co is a brand new company started in December of last year, and they're currently in the process of putting their name and product out there in the market, so since I'm doing this Happiness Initiative anyway, why not share the happiness?

Fariz and Aneesha gave me two sample pots last week, and I've stored them in the office fridge to pair with my packed lunches. But for baba ghanoush, I felt like I needed to do something special! Today, I'll share a recipe for Greek Meatballs that I found somewhere ages ago but never got around to trying (I really can't recall where I found this recipe, so if any reader knows it and could kindly point me to a link to credit, I'd really appreciate it).

 

Greek Meatballs
Yield: 16 1 inch sized balls

• 0.5 kg ground lamb
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 1/2 tbsp mint, chopped
• 1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• Salt and pepper
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C, combine all ingredients in a bowl, then shape into balls of around 1 inch in diameter and line them up on a lightly greased baking tray. Bake for 20-22 minutes.

I was going to have an open faced sandwich with baba ghanoush and meatballs, but that all went out the window and I ended up just slathering the delicious eggplanty goodness of baba ghanoush onto the meatballs. The flavour combination was fantastic, and I just kinda wish the sample pot of baba ghanoush was like... 4 times the amount LOL.

I've been experimenting with different types of hummus myself, but haven't strayed far from the basic recipe, so this Smoky Chipotle hummus was a very nice surprise! It was smoky, true to it's name lol, and had just the right amount of heat in each bite. I had this hummus on a slice of good grain bread, with some slices of store bought (probably processed) smoked turkey meat, rocket and lettuce. Amazing, and totally hit the spot for workday lunches.

Anyway, I personally don't mind making my own hummus, but there have been days when I've been too lazy and end up not simply because I don't like the hummus that we can get at the supermarkets in town. Now that I've found Hummus Co, I know where I can go to stock up my office fridge lol. Looking forward to trying out their different flavours.

According to their FB, they have the following flavours:
1. Signature Hummus
2. Tangy Jalapeno Hummus
3. Smoky Chipotle Hummus
4. Greek Olive Hummus (OMG I want to try this one!)
5. Classic Pesto Hummus
6. Rich Sun Dried Tomato Hummus

Check out their facebook page for more information. You can place orders by emailing them at hummusco@gmail.com, for a minimum order of 250g. Unfortunately for a big bulk of my readers, you can only order if you live in Malaysia, preferably in KL as you'll have to pick your order up at their HQ.

They also post up some nifty healthy recipes and options for their products. They have a Mediterranean burger recipe that I've got my eye on. Anyone wanna do a barbecue at my place now that the rainy season has let up?

xx Nabs

P.S. I apologize for the crap iPhone pictures, but I'm definitely going to make these meatballs again over the weekend... might update this depending on how bovvered I am lol.

The Happiness Initiative

Mountain bread wheat wraps with beetroot hummus, tuna & apple, tomato salsa, and lentil salad

My good friend and colleague, Alena, (hello, it's been a while since she's been mentioned here) and I have decided to follow our other healthier, fitter friends' footsteps towards clean eating. We're really into food, desserts, and cooking though, so we're going to take things one step at a time. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go all health-freak on you and stop with my cakes completely. This is about making a sustainable lifestyle adjustment, it's not a crash diet, and I hope that it becomes something I can maintain for the rest of my life. I just enjoy food far too much to cut out a lot of it, so instead of a clean eating initiative, we have decided to call it The Happiness Initiative. 

What are the guidelines of THI, you wonder? Well, I'm glad you asked, buddy, cos here they are:

1. Eat well prepared food made of the best ingredients
2. Do something fun and artsy (check out the local music scene, paint a table, I dunno, anything!)
3. If you're going to have dessert, bake a friggin cake and have a bite 
4. Don't sweat the small stuff. Adopt our mantra: It's NACHO problem, you don't have to TACO bout it
5. Wake up, and smile at yourself in the mirror even if you're hungover
6. Oh yea, have a drink every now and then, but don't push it
7. Let's get physical, physical, I wanna get physical (walk, ride a bike, swim, play tennis, have sex, tickle your siblings, dance to corny music) 
8. Do at least 2 things you've never done, in 2 places you've never been in a year
9. Treat yourself, have something to look forward to every month

Easy, right? lol this is by no means a list to follow, this is simply our list of how to be happy. I'm a strong believer that you don't chase happiness, you simply have to be happy, and so these are just a few things I do to make myself happy on a daily basis. 

For our first week of putting the THI into motion, we prepared a few dishes that we can store in the office fridge for our lunches and daytime snacks. Thank the stars for a good pantry, by the way. These recipes are SO easy, and takes about 15 minutes to prepare so it doesn't take anything to whip them up the night before and bring them in to work the next day. Hope you give them a shot! 

Beetroot Hummus

Tahini:

• 5 cups sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 cups of olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, toast sesame seeds for 5-10 minutes (do not let it burn, a golden brown will suffice)
2. Blend the tahini and olive oil until you achieve a pourable texture

Beetroot Hummus:

• 1 16oz tin of chick peas
• 1/4 cup liquid from the chick peas tin
• 3-5 tbsp of lemon juice (or to taste)
• 1 1/2 tbsp tahini
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium sized beetroot, peeled and cooked

1. First, peel and chop the beetroot into small 1cm and cook in a saucepan over a low heat. I just brushed the saucepan with olive oil. Cook until soft, so about 30 mins? lol sorry
2. Blend all ingredients for 3-5 minutes on low speed until thoroughly mixed and the texture is smooth

Apple & Tuna salad

• 1 can tuna flakes in water, no salt added
• 1 Granny Smith green apple, cut into cubes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon
• Pepper
• Pinch of sea salt flakes

Hello! Just mash it all up in a small bowl, you can eat it as it or use it as a filling for wraps and sandwiches

And a recipe contribution from Alena:

Tomato Salsa

• 3 large tomatoes, remove pulp, chopped into cubes
• Handful of coriander
• Dried oregano
• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar
• Sea salt
• Pepper

Once again, just mix it all up in a bowl and chill in the fridge

Sorry for the radio silence lately, but so much has been happening and I simply haven't found the time to type up posts worthy of you readers. I'll try to get some time in this weekend, but between a concert on Saturday and fancy dinner cooking party on Sunday, I'm not sure when I'll be able to do it. But no worries, I am a miracle worker, I'll have a post up in a week.

Much love, be happy, and enjoy this amazing painting done for me by the lovely and talented Alena:

Alena is a very talented painter, and she's taking commissions now, so if you're interested in owning a piece of her art, drop her an email at alena.murang@gmail.com 

A Change of Pace

After a month of celebrations and good food (many of which include dessert), I woke up over the weekend feeling incredibly... tight. That's the only way for me to describe it, like my body is too tight for my skin!

So I resolved to return to my regular eating habits, which includes a packed lunch during work.

Key ingredient for my lunches: Hummus.

The store-bought stuff here is ridiculously priced, so I figured out ages ago that it's much cheaper to just make it myself, and also yummier as I get to tweak it to my personal preference (in this case, bring on the lemon juice!)

First of all, you've got to prepare the Tahini (which costs about rm27 at the stores here, are you CRAZY?! When the actual cost of making this stuff comes up to about rm5?), which will be the base for the hummus.

Tahini:

• 5 cups sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 cups of olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, toast sesame seeds for 5-10 minutes (do not let it burn, a golden brown will suffice)
2. Blend the tahini and olive oil until you achieve a pourable texture

Hummus:

• 1 16oz tin of chick peas
• 1/4 cup liquid from the chick peas tin
• 3-5 tbsp of lemon juice (or to taste)
• 1 1/2 tbsp tahini
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp olive oil

1. Blend all ingredients for 3-5 minutes on low speed until thoroughly mixed and the texture is smooth
2. Optional: garnish with parsley, or throw in a slice of chili or a dash of cayenne pepper for some spice
3. Serve up with pita bread, or store for up to two weeks in the fridge

Enjoy! Hummus is a GREAT thing to have ready in the fridge for anytime of the day.

x Nabs