Perfect, creamy hummus

I made the most amazing hummus earlier this week. Possibly the best I've ever had. The first few times I made hummus I was always disappointed, it just wasn't creamy enough. Even after I bought my food processor, which significantly improved the hummus making process, let me tell you, I still found it to be lackluster. Until last week, I read a tip to heat up your chickpeas when making hummus to get them to blend smoother and I thought I'd give it a try.

Results? Amazing! I heated my chickpeas up in the microwave for 20-30 seconds before putting them in the food processor and the difference was like night and day. The hummus was almost frothy when I was blending it. You also want to use a small amount of the liquid from the can of chickpeas, this helps too, but not nearly as much as heating them up first.

I also put a fairly significant amount of paprika in this batch, which gave it a really nice spice profile.

Pizza week continues - Sweet potato arugula

This recipe was actually the inspiration of pizza week. I saw a recipe on thekitchn for sweet potato arugula pizza (this is their photo, I did not get a shot of mine), which just sounded SO tasty. Normally, I don't break out new recipes when I'm cooking for other people, but I decided to make this when some friends came over, not for dinner exactly but weighty nibbles.

First, let me say that the flavor combination was excellent. The sweet potato and arugula are a perfect match. Next, let me say, this recipe did not work at all. The sweet potato do not cook nearly fast enough for them to be ready before the crust is anything other than burnt and I sliced them wafer thin. I highly recommend you make this but when you do, make sure to pre-cook the sweet potato until they are at least half-way cooked either by microwaving your slices or cooking them on the stove in a little bit of water. Seriously, I had to take all of the slices off the pizza, cook them more and put them back on. A royal pain in the bum.

When the munchies were finally ready, I had some very hungry guests (including me) but we all loved this. I would definitely make it again but with pre-cooking my sweet potatoes.