Hummus with one eye on the scales

The Thrifty Kitchen is a book by Suzanne Gibbs and and Kate Gibbs.  The daughter and granddaughter of an Australian culinary icon, Margaret Fulton it has some great recipes that require little effort and no exotic ingredients.  I was initially cooking from Good Food Fast  Loose weight - feel great and the recipe included a mayonnaise using low-fat commercial mayo - which I do have to hand.  It did suggest though that you could use Hummus in place of the mayo, and I liked that idea better here.  It seemed the perfect opportunity to make this amazing low-fat version of Hummus with the idea from the Gibbs girls.  So, while the main recipe was for some Chicken Kibbeh this little side is well worth it's own moment.

My own version of this yummy dip is quite high in fat, albeit a 'good' fat in olive oil.  When you're trying to lose the kilos it matters not if it's a fat that will help your HDLs it's still fat, and you need to keep it down.  So I now reserve my own version for special occasions and make this one for everyday use.  The children enjoy it for afternoon tea, so I make it every few weeks anyway.

You can start from scratch with this version of chickpea dip, and it's undoubtedly the best way to go.  When I make it from dry chickpeas, I add the garlic to the cooking chickpeas and water for the last 15 minutes.  My children find raw garlic added to a dip too hot, and cooking it off removes the threat of heat, and we can all enjoy.  Today though, it was the even easier tinned version I made.  Here's what I did with a fair nod to the original.

Last Minute Hummus

1 small garlic clove (half a larger piece)
white and light green portion from one small spring onion (optional)
1 tin of chickpeas, drained, but reserve the liquor
juice of half a lemon
pinch salt
1 heaped tsp tahini
1 level tsp freshly ground cumin
extra lemon juice to taste

Roughly chop the garlic and spring onion and drop it into the food processor.  Process these until they are finely chopped. 

Add the chickpeas, lemon juice, and salt.  Process and add about a half a cupful of the reserved liquor to make a smooth paste.

Put the tahini and cumin in, give it a final wizz about and taste for seasoning, adding more salt or lemon juice if you think it needs it.  The temptation may be there to add more tahini, but resist if you can!

Scrape into a bowl, garnish with a little finely sliced spring onion and serve with crudites or with the Kibbeh Burgers that I shall blog about on another day - I hope!

For a 'diet' recipe this is fab.  I am not going to pretend it is as good as a full-fat Hummus can be, but  you  know, I really am very contented with this version and wouldn't say I miss the original.  It's still streets ahead most of the bought stuff.  I'm very bad at eating too much of this kind of thing, so keeping it low fat is really vital for me, otherwise I just can't have it at all.....

....This is going to be a key to being able to maintain my health.  I still struggle with portion sizes, but only in food that - and how ironic - is the type of food you need to be moderate about.  What's working for me right now is eating healthy food most of the time, but, on special occasions, I allow myself to relax a little.  It's the 'a little' that I struggle with.  While it is true that overall things are still headed in the right direction, until I can unlock this thing in my head that causes overeating of my favourite foods, I'll always have a huge risk of returning to where I have been.  Things are looking up.  When we get take away, I am ordering less than I was, but it's still more than it should be.  On an occasion where we had bought pizza (the family is missing our home-made pizza nights), I still managed 4 slices from a family size pizza, and I didn't even feel good afterwards.  I'm not even much of a fan of bought pizza, the family is, but you know, something switched in my head, and I ate too fast and ate too much. 

Most recently, it was a miso soup, a wakame salad and nearly a half share of a deluxe sushi/sashimi platter for two.  So it was two entrees and a main.  True, I wanted the tori kara age, which is crumbed deep fried chicken (have always liked it, but it's off limits unless it's my birthday or something) and I left that. but still, more than a 'normal' person would eat I'm sure.  So do I congratulate myself for the improvement?  Chastise myself for my lack of self-control?  Perhaps it's best to accept I am human and doing the best I can, and try next time to eat one less piece of sushi?  I tend to eat less of the sushi and more of the sashimi because of the rice anyway, maybe I need to sneak up on eating less.  It's not just one day at a time, not even one meal at a time, but really, one mouthful at a time!