Sing this to the tune of “These are a few of my favorite things:”

chick peas and garlic with pepper and cumin
fresh cup of lemon and food processor’s hummin’
parsely or pine nuts for the garnishing
these are a few of my favorite things

brown colored bulgur and crisp fresh chopped parsely
mint leaves and romas and garlic with oil
mix it together and what do you find?
these are a few of my favorite things

chick peas a plenty but this time with flour
mince in some onions and fry it together
put it in pita and what do you see?
these are a few of my favorite things

when it tastes good
when it’s too much
when i’m feeling full
I simply remember my favorite things
and then i go back for more

Ingredients

Hummus

courtesy of Simply Recipes
4 garlic cloves, minced and then mashed
2 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup of tahini
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil

Tabouleh

courtesy of food network
1/2 cup medium grain bulgur
1 1/4 cups water
2 cups loosely packed, roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
5 roma tomatoes, peeled, sliced, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup green onions chopped
1/4 to 1/2 cup loosely packed, roughly chopped mint leaves
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
Pinch kosher salt
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. corriander

Falafel

courtesy of epicurious
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 large onion, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
2 T. finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. crushd red pepper flakes
4 cloves of garlic, mashed and minced
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. baking powder
4-6 T. flour
canola or vegetable oil for frying
Tahina sauce
Pita bread

Directions

Hummus

1. In a food processor, combine the mashed garlic, chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, 1/2 cup water, and olive oil. Process until smooth. Add salt to taste
2. Spoon into serving dish and sprinkle with chopped parsley for garnish.
3. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Tabouleh

1. Pour 2 cups bulgur wheat in medium sized bowl. Pour 2 cups water. Let stand for an hour.
2. In large bowl, combine parsley, tomatoes, mint and green onions. Add bulgur and combine well.
3. In small bowl combine lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin and corriander. Pour dressing over bulgur mix and coat evenly.

Falafel

1. Place the drained chickpeas and onions in the food processor. Add the parsley, red pepper flakes, garlic, and cumin. Process until blended but not pureed.

2. Sprinkle in the baking powder and 4 T. of the flour, and pulse until completely mixed. Add enough flour so the dough forms a small ball and no longer sticks to your hands. Pour into bowl and refrigerate, covered, for several hours (although when I made it I put in the fridge for about 15 minute and they still cooked!).

3. Heat 3 inches of oil to 375 degrees in a deep pot or wok and fry 1 ball to test. If it falls apart, add a little flour.

4. Fry rest of falafel balls a few minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

And finally! Stuff the pita with falafel balls, tabouleh and hummus!

Voila! You’ve just made fabulous Middle eastern cuisine, enjoy!

**

Post-baking thoughts: When I try something new and it works, it always feels good. But tonight I felt very proud of putting this together. It was completely new and different and ended up being delicious and satisfying. This was our one-vegetarian-meal-a-week meal. So far it’s been very easy to reach that goal…who knows, maybe we’ll push it to two days a week?

I’ve also nticed that a basic hummus recipe (like this one) can be used as a springboard to a variety of different flavors of hummus…so if you have a good hummus recipe, let me know!

UPDATE: Who owns hummus? There’s apparently a debate now between Lebanon and Israel on who should own the rights to hummus. Like they didn’t have enough problems! (Thanks John!)