On Monday, February 17, 2014 12:51:58 PM UTC-5, sf wrote:

> GD has some sort of an allergy to garbanzo beans, gets hives. She's
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> so sensitive that she gets a skin rash just by coming into contact
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> with them... so I'm thinking about trying to make hummus with a
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> different bean - probably the small white kind. For me, hummus is all
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> about the tahini and garlic anyway. It's one of the few places I
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> tolerate garbanzos - otherwise, I don't particularly like them.
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>
>
> So, I'm wondering if anyone has a chickpea free hummus recipe they
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> particularly like? If not, I found one on the internet that I'll try.
>
> Thanks!


My grandparents came from Lebanon and landed in Allentown Pa with others. All were great cooks. Hummus was always in the fridge along with a big bowl of home made yogurt.

A cousin to hummus is 'babaganoush' (sp?. It is made exactly the same as hummus, but eggplant is used instead of the beans. I remember them putting the eggplant in the oven to roast the skin off. Today they use a microwave, same thing. You might want to try the baba.

I have made hummus many times, by hand, using a mortar and pestle. It's tedious. I buy mine at Whole Foods now, their house brand is not bad.

But what I want you to know also because it's interesting, that the ingredients of hummus a made by my grandparents were very simple and limited in number. A bunch of garlic mortar and pestled to butter, then a few heaping tablespoons of tahini, stirred together till they get too stiff to stir, at which time the lemon is added. A bit at a time until those three ingedients are blended into a pale creamy paste of dipping consistency. That is called tartar (sp?), and was used once a week as a side dressing for fish. It makes me wonder about the similar sounds of tarter sauce and tartar. Maybe tarter came from the Arabic language. Anyway, garlic, lemon, tahini, garbonzos, and salt - those are the main ingredients for hummus. Remove the beans from the recipe and you're got a tangy tarter sauce. I never made babganoush, so I can't help you there. But I believe it's the same process as making hummus with eggplants chopped up and mashed in place of the garbonzos. I have tried hummus where they add things like olive oil and cumin and so forth, and I think it screws it up. IMO.

TJ