Avocado Hummus

  Posted on March 5, 2012  by Leslie Blythe  No comments

In yesterday’s Sunday Los Angeles Times Magazine there was this amazing recipe for Avocado Hummus with Nigella Seeds. Nigella seeds are used as a spice in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisines. The dry roasted nigella seeds flavor curries, vegetables and pulses. The black seeds taste like a combination of onions, black pepper and oregano, and have a bitterness to them like mustard seeds. It can be used as a “pepper” in recipes with pod fruit, vegetables, salads and poultry. The fact is, you don’t have to use Nigella seeds in the recipe. It would be excellent on its own, so don’t kill yourself trying to find them.

Avocado Hummus

Garlic confit
Juice of 2 lemons, separated
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
2 cups drained chickpeas
6 Tbs tahini
1½ cup olive oil
½ cup ice
3 ripe avocados
Salt to taste
Pomegranate seeds

Garlic Confit
4 cloves peeled garlic
1/2 cup canola oil
Add garlic and oil to a small pot and simmer gently until tender.

Place confit, mustard and juice of 1 lemon in processor. Season with salt and pulse until smooth. Add chickpeas and puree, drizzling in the tahini. Add ice and 1 cup oil. Taste, then move to a bowl. Without cleaning processor, add avocado and remaining lemon juice. Puree, drizzling in remaining ½ cup oil and salt to taste. Fold avocado purée into chickpea puree and stir. Garnish with pomegranate seeds, oil, salt and nigella seeds.