If you watch 90-day fiance like my husband does, you come to know a lot about the reality TV stars over time and you end up with your favorites. And Alex and Loren are two of our favorites. Last night on Discovery + he found a show called Foody Call (like Booty Call) where the shows participants share their favorite recipes and relationship advice to callers and viewers with questions; most of which are sexual in nature.
This recipe is from Alex and Loren Brovarnik. Loren is a young lady from Florida who married a young man from Israel. They are the cutest couple and now have an adorable little baby.
They made these two recipes along with a stuffed chicken and ambrosia dessert last night. But, since we are primarily plant-based, and I am dairy and gluten-free, I made these two dishes today for a tapas-style grab and go. In the heat of Florida, it’s great to have tapas on the lanai or just sitting out on the counter for a healthy grab and go. (See, the blue dishes? I made all those.)
Ingredients for Hummus:
1- 15 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed.
3/4 – teaspoon baking soda
1/2 – cup warm water
1/2 – cup tahini
4 – lemons, juiced
4 – cloves of store-bought roasted garlic, (I did roast my own, because I didn’t know store-bought roasted garlic was a thing?) Roasting your own garlic is easy, but takes 40 minutes. How? Cut off tops of the garlic with a knife, place in tin foil, drizzle well with olive oil, twist it tight at the top to close and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Place a pan under it since it can drip and cause smoke or fire.) It should look like this when it’s done:
Kosher salt or sea salt
Za’atar, for topping
Extra virgin olive oil, for topping
Pita bread cut up into dippable triangles
Cucumber and carrots and celery, optional
Directions:
Place the chickpeas in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Add baking soda and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until chickpea skins are coming off and some are floating to the top. This will take about 15 minutes.
Remove to a colander and run under cold water removing as much of the skins as possible.
Place chickpeas, 1/2 cup of warm water, tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt in a blender and blend until smooth. Add more water as needed if it’s too thick (a tablespoon at a time) until it’s your desired consistency.
Plate or place in bowl, top with drizzle of olive oil and dust with any herbs you’d like, like parsley, Za’atar, garlic, cumin, etc. Dip pita bread and vegetables, serve with Israeli Salad below and enjoy.
Israeli Salad Ingredients:
1-2 ripe tomatoes, or one red bell pepper, chopped
1- English cucumber, cut up into small bite sized pieces
1- red or yellow onion, I used 1/2 of a 1/2 red onion. 😉
Fresh parsley, mint or cilantro, chopped. I used Cilantro.
1/4 EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil)
2 – lemons, juiced
Kosher or sea salt and fresh black pepper
Directions:
Combine tomatoes, and/or red bell pepper, cucumber, onion and herbs to bowl
Drizzle with olive oil, and lemon juice
Season with salt and pepper
This can be eaten right away or left out for the flavors to incorporate. No need to refrigerate until you’re ready to because there’s nothing in this that can go bad.
Enjoy!
Thanks for sharing your life with us Alex and Loren and thank you for the recipes!
*Note: Za’atar is a blend of cumin, sesame seeds, marjoram, thyme, and sumac a pungent lemony flavored Middle Eastern spice.
Additional Information you may like to know:
P.S. – If you’d like to support me, you can do so by buying, reading, and reviewing my memoir here. It’s available in paperback only on Amazon and Kindle edition e-book. Thanks so much!
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