Black Eye and Olive Hummus

It's my blogiversary!  Six years of keeping track of my meals.

The thing I dislike about doing a pantry endurance test, especially when the garden is producing, is not going grocery shopping.  The vast majority of the time, I don't see the market as a chore.  It's a time to be creative, to inspire my palate.  Rooting through the pantry and freezer for odd items just isn't the same.

The eggplant I was going to use for this hummus turned out to be too old and had rotted on the bush.  Bummer, but it gave me an excuse to shop for more than just orange juice.  I'm not going to buy an eggplant when there are six more small ones growing, so I spent much longer than I should have at the market deciding if I wanted to do olives or artichokes.  Even with splurging on some smoked gouda cheese and a picnic bottle of wine, my entire grocery bill was $15 for about four days.  I have maybe one more week of this before shopping gets back to normal.  I'm still going to have a lot of bacon in the freezer, though.  Kind of stocked up on that when it was on sale.  And four one-pound packs of the turkey I deboned a couple of weeks ago.

*1/2 C dry black-eye peas, or one 15 oz can, drained
1 2.5 oz can sliced or diced black olives, drained
*3 cloves garlic
*1 Tb lemon juice
*1/4 C tahini paste

1.  If making peas from dry, soak for at least 4 hours.  Drain, simmer in lightly salted water for 2 hours. Drain.

2.  Place all ingredients in food processor.  Run to make a slightly chunky paste.  It's ok to have larger bits of olive.  Taste and add more garlic, lemon juice, or a touch of salt as needed.  Canned beans won't need more salt, but from dry might.

3.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Serve with pita or fresh veggies, like a cucumber you just picked out of the garden.

There is just no polite way to photograph a whole cucumber

Makes about 2 cups

Difficulty rating  π