What’s the difference between hummus and tahini? Hummus is made with chickpeas and tahini, while tahini is made from sesame seeds. Both are featured in this week’s reviews.
The Complete Hummus Cookbook
I was surprised–and yet, not totally surprised–that there’s an entire cookbook devoted to using hummus. So, of course, I accepted an offer to review The Complete Hummus Cookbook (Hatherleigh Press, $20).
Another reason I wanted to check out this book was because it’s written by Catherine Gill. Last year I reviewed her other book, The Dirty Vegan. She said in the feedback she got from that book, she learned that many people share her love for this “underrated spread,” as she calls it.
Gill will open your eyes in seeing that hummus can be used for more than just a dip. For example, it can replace the eggs in banana bread (p. 59), and it can act as the “gravy” with biscuits and gravy (p. 127).
With all the growing popularity of the Impossible Burger, why not make your own, using hummus (p. 72)? The patties are made of any flavor of hummus plus brown rice, seasoned bread crumbs, onion powder, yeast, salt and pepper.
The Complete Hummus Cookbook has more than 100 recipes, from appetizers to meals to sides and to desserts. It also includes several variations on hummus, such as peanut butter & jelly hummus (p. 34).
***
Tahini Squeeze Bottles
I loved the TahiniBARs I reviewed last year, so I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to review another product by Mighty Sesame Co.: tahini in squeeze bottles.
The tahini is vegan, keto-friendly, gluten-free and dairy-free and comes in 10.9 oz. bottles ($4.99). You can get it in two “flavors”–organic and whole seed.
The organic version was fairly neutral-tasting, as expected. This is what you would use to make hummus or another dip. Each serving has 210 calories, 18 g. fat, 4 g. carbs and 8 g. protein.
The whole seed is made from un-hulled sesame seeds to provide more calcium and a richer flavor. In fact, it slightly resembled peanut butter. Try dipping crackers or veggies into it. Each serving as 190 calories, 17 g. fat, 1 g. carbs and 7 g. protein.
In Madison, you can buy the convenient tahini squeeze bottles at Walmart and Whole Foods, and online at Amazon.com.
