Hummus and flatbread
I had been making flatbreads almost weekly for the past several months; usually to accompany a lentil stew, or for a personal-sized pizza crust. Obviously they also work well with a spread as a quick snack or light lunch, and I was inspired by a video I came across on the “My Name is Andong” YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/IRECUDMZteA). I had never made hummus from scratch before, but this looked straightforward, and in the spirit of learning how to do new things during these challenging times, I thought I’d take it on!
For the hummus, I pretty much followed the procedure in Andong’s video, with the exception that I also made the Tahini from scratch. The resulting hummus was smooth and subtle, while this was only my first attempt and I’m sure left room for improvement, I preferred it to the many store-bought spreads I’d bought in the past. Check out Andong’s video for the exact how-to!
As for the flatbreads, I based them on various naan recipes that I’d seen online, and I hadn’t followed any specific recipe. My best recollection of how I made those is below.
Naan(?) recipe
Thing is, I don’t even know if this is considered naan. It started off as a naan recipe, but lately I’ve just been doing it by feel.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
~1/2 tsp salt
~1/2 tsp yeast
~1 tbsp honey
~1 tbsp flour
~1/4 cup warm water
~1/4 cup plain, unsweetened 11% MF Greek yogurt
Procedure
Combine 2 cups of flour and salt in a mixing bowl.
Mix the yeast, honey, 1 tbsp flour, and warm water in a liquid measuring cup. Let it sit for a bit to let the yeast activate.
Once the yeast mixture is activated (bubbly), stir in the yogurt, and add enough water so that the total volume of the mixture is 1 cup.
Combine the liquids and solids, and mix until a dough forms. Kneed the dough until relatively smooth.
Cover, and let rest for at least an hour in a warm spot.
Divide the dough and form into 8 equal balls.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out each of the balls until they form ~1/8” thick discs.
One at a time, place each disc on a cast iron skillet, heated to medium/medium high. Flip when bubbles form (~ 1 to 2 minutes) and cook until it puffs up. The resulting flatbread should have toasty bits on each side.
If desired, brush with melted butter, or a butter/garlic mixture and garnish with parsley or cilantro.