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Seriously good stuff.  I love me some home-made hummus slathered on fresh bread or nice crusty toast with a few slices of tomato and a scattering of fresh basil.  The quick easy comforting and delicious factors make it one of my favourite midday (or sometimes midnight) snacks.

I know making it yourself sounds like a whole bunch of work what with the soaking and the boiling of chickpeas for hours on end, but really it isn't and the time it takes is mostly just waiting around for the peas to be ready (perfect for reading just a few more chapters of that book or perhaps getting in a quick nap), and it's totally worth it.  Instead of the watery mushy vaguely chickpea flavoured crap that you get from the supermarket or the tasty but bank account draining stuff you can occasionally pick up at farmers markets, by making it yourself you have drool worthy fresh hummus that you can afford to eat by the spoonful (as I have been known to do on occasion) and can be tweaked according to mood or fussy boyfriends taste requirements.

My basic recipe goes a bit like this: (though I taste as I go and you should too)

1 Cup of dried chickpeas (I usually soak them overnight then boil for about 2 hours)
2 Tablespoons of Tahini
1 clove of garlic - two if I want Josh to eat it and be buggered the smelly breath problem
2 Tablespoons of cumin
1/2 Cup of olive oil - add more as required
1 tsp of salt (keep tasting, sometimes a pinch or two more ties everything together nicely)
Squeeze of lemon

Once your chickpeas are good and cooked, drain them off and then put everything in a blender or food processor if you have one (I only had a little hand held thing for a while but made do by mushing up the garlic with some rock salt and the cumin with a mortar and pestle first then stirring it in), and blending or processing until it is at the consistency you want - I tend to not worry too much about a few chunks but it does look more appealing all smoothed out. If you are serving it up to impress people I find a sprinkle of paprika and a sprig of flat leaf parsley jazz it up a notch or two.

Now, eat with spoon straight from bowl or be more civilised and have it with bread, on top of roast veggies, in place of butter on sandwiches or as dip with biscuits and carrot sticks. Be creative. My theory is that since all the ingredients are healthy I can eat as much of it as I want, which lately has meant a pot of soaking chickpeas is a bit of a permanent feature on the kitchen bench. One day I'll get over it.