Riverside Ovens
Test Kitchen

When it comes to hummus, you just have to dive in, so to speak. No need to over think whether the popular, maybe trendy, Mediterranean inspired dip looks a little beige or clumpy to eat.  This recipe, Roasted Garlic Cauliflower Hummus, is so quick and easy it's done and ready to try it's not worth the sweat to worry what it might be like.  It's good fresh, and in the previous post it was pointed out that

cauliflower has some surprisingly wonderful benefits for cardiovascular and as an anti-inflammatory. The recipe started with the need for a full head of garlic roasted for half an hour. You have to cut off the head of the garlic then drizzle with olive oil. By minute 15 the aroma near the oven seems very similar to your favorite restaurant which has probably been doing the same thing for hours getting

ready to use those soft pellets of garlic for bread or roasting, who knows.  Cut a head of cauliflower into small florets, making sure to keep some of the stalk -- this too will soften as it steams and is certainly edible.  Find a blender or processor and dump the soft cauliflower and the roasted garlic in, enough olive oil to fully moisten, two full tablespoons of Tahini Paste (this is sesame seeds reduced,

high in good fat and fiber), a pinch of lemon juice, dashes of cumin, paprika, salt and pepper and basically pulse the warm and aromatic mixture until it reaches a consistency you prefer. Scoop out and sprinkle with a dash more of paprika. Find your favorite vegetables for dippers; find your favorite funky crackers, like multigrain seasoned, or pita chips and eat while still warm.  What you find is that the store bought hummus, although good in its own right, tends to carry far more seasonings and far more flavors that tend to stay with you for hours.  Here, the mildness of the central ingredient, cauliflower, is very mellow, with slight flavors of acidic lemon, pinches of the tahini, and slight cumin.  The texture, though, is the true seller of the homemade version, soft, slightly chunky, and basically comfort food.