Olive Houmous

I am following up on my pita post with a totally yummy Olive Houmous!

In the picture - Mother's Day Daisies From My Daughter :)

A funny tale behind this wonderfully delicious dish -  So last year, some of my family decided to go to an island resort in Greece – While I did read some about Greece and the food options for vegetarians, I was well aware that meat was the mainstay for Greeks. But the romantic notions of fresh Greek Salad and Houmous and yogurt were very uplifting. Then we get there and this resort was kinda isolated – a 45 minute boat ride to the biggest island/tourist resort, Hydra. Not a soul there knew what the heck we were asking for when we tried to order Houmous – Not a soul knew the heck how to talk in English either – There I was playing a game of Pictionary, drawing with all my might and gesticulating verily to make them understand until one other customer at the café said, Ah whomoosh! In rapid Greek, he explained to them what I was talking about and I could tell light bulbs were coming on brightly and their broad smiles made me realize what a dummy I was asking for a Lebanese/Turkish dish in Greece and expecting them to understand!

While we never got to eat houmous, we did eat a lot of unbelievably thick and sluggish yogurt, which seemed to me made purely of fat, like the fresh churned butter (vennai) that we do have on Gokulashtami in India.

I have mentioned to you Bobbi’s humus which is sold on occasion in Sam’s club and how crazy we are for it. Sabra is a brand that sells a really yummy humus too although they are getting more commercial.

So when I made the pita, I went all out and made Olive humus (houmous) too.

So here my friends, is a happy companion to the pita.

I will like to compare this combo to a chappati/chutney combo or dosai/thogayal combo.

Ingredients

3 cans garbanzo beans

1 can of black olives, pitted

2 tbps of tahini sauce

8-10 cloves of garlic

6-10 red chilies

1 tbsp black pepper

2 tbsp Virgin Olive Oil

Preparation

Grind the contents together in a fine paste

Pour into a serving container

Dribble the oil over it

Add a spring of your favorite herb for decoration (I used basil)

Serve with Pitas

BIG TIP: SERVED CHILLED FOR BEST TASTE
Sending this to my own event which is being guest hosted by Priya of Bon Appetit