Photo: Nina Lincoff
Exceptional cooking is never exact. A recipe is less a precise list than it is a rough guide to making a meal. Recipes are meant to be changed. They beg for substitutions and adaptations. Too often, cooks lacking in confidence follow a recipe down to the last teaspoon, and end up with a dish that is somewhat flat. It lacks last-minute flair. It lacks a little love.
Food requires improvisation. It begs the cook to personalize and curate the dish to make it into something better. The reason grandma’s onion soup is so much better than yours is probably because grandma didn’t follow every line on a recipe. She followed the taste and smells of the dish, not the ink on an index card.
Understandably, cooking without exact directions can be terrifying. So we’ll start off easy with what’s become the dip of the world: hummus. Once exclusively the fodder of the Mediterranean and crazy vegans, hummus is now the ‘in vogue’ spread. Soccer moms adore it, and buffets plop it down on the salad bar as an additional slick of protein. Hummus, in its simple, flavorful way, has invaded our sandwiches and crudité platters because it plays well with others and can be tailored toward anybody’s taste.
Traditional hummus is composed of garbanzo beans, tahini (sesame paste), garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. The perfect balance of these ingredients depends on who you are. The basic frame of hummus—beans and seasoning, pureed—lends itself to creative substitutions in the forms of edamame hummus, roasted red pepper hummus, garlicky hummus, black pepper hummus, or today’s white bean hummus. Feel free to adapt and throw in whatever flavors you like or have on hand. Follow your gut, but just make sure to taste along the way.
White Bean Hummus
Take two cans of white beans, reserving some of the canning liquid, and add to a food processor or blender with two cloves of peeled garlic, half a shallot, a pinch of smoked paprika, and a pinch of cumin. Puree until smooth. Crack black pepper into the hummus and puree. With the food processor running, squeeze half a lemon’s worth of juice into the hummus. Slowly drizzle in olive oil until the hummus is thick and creamy. Season with salt and additional black pepper to taste. Transfer to a Tupperware and refrigerate until serving. Good with crackers, pita chips, vegetables, sandwiches.
Other additions/substitutions: tahini (expensive, but adds a wonderful, traditional flavor), more garlic, roasted garlic, roasted red peppers, chipotle, adobo, a splash of red wine vinegar, sesame oil, garlic oil, any kind of nut butter, nut oils (walnut, hazelnut, almond), garlic salt, onion powder, turmeric, oregano, chives, parsley.
