There is a certain pleasure in following a recipe and getting a perfect result. It takes away the pressure and lets you just enjoy the sights, tastes and smells of cooking. A bit like going to a yoga class: you don’t have to think of what to do next.
This post is not about that!
It’s about another kind of pleasure: playing with ingredients, trusting your senses, and not caring too much about the result – don’t worry, we’ll give you enough advice that it won’t taste horrible!
Imagine you feel like hummus at the end of the evening – I mean, who doesn’t? But you don’t have any of its ingredients, no chickpeas, no tahini (sesame paste), no olive oil, no garlic, no lemon juice, no black pepper – OK we won’t go as far as no salt. That’s just tragic. I hope that doesn’t happen to anyone or that at the very least you’d have some salted crisps or crackers to dip into your no-mmus.
The recipe is simple, in fact it is so simple, it’s almost not worth writing it down. I have already given you the list of ingredients above. Now just replace everything with something similar.
For one small bowl of nommus
Get your blender and put the following in it: if you don’t have a blender, get a sturdy cup and a pan and use them as a pestle and mortar – yes, I did have had to do that a few times during various hummus attacks!
Chickpeas: Use any other cooked pulse: red kidney beans, cannellini beans, butter beans, etc. If it is really the end of the evening, you’d need the said bean coming from a can – one can is enough for a small bowl. Keep the water from the can. DON’T use a can of beans in a sauce, just beans in water!
Tahini: If you are lucky enough to have any other nut paste, bung in a couple of spoons full. Make sure your nut paste is not sweetened (yuck!). If you don’t, add a handful of any nuts (walnuts work very well as they are soft and also very oily), but even peanuts would do. Besides, if you are in the tragic situation of not having any salt in the house, you surely have some salted peanuts for that beer you’d want to have with the no-mmus.
Olive oil: Use any oil, 2-3 spoons full will do. But more is fine, too, if you like your no-mmus shiny. Good old rapeseed oil will do, but really any liquid vegetable oil is fine. If you are going for something that has a strong taste, like sesame oil, don’t go overboard. Just add a couple of teaspoons. But with other blander oils, you can do more.
Garlic: Onion. Simples. Half a small onion, very finely chopped, will do. Spring onion tips would do, too. Though the texture of your no-mmus would be a bit funky.
Black pepper: Well just use any other colour pepper. Even paprika or cayenne in moderation are fine. For a bit more of an exotic no-mmus, and a tip of a teaspoon of ground cumin.
Lemon juice: This one is hard to replace. Lime is fine of course, it is almost the same as lemon, so it’s not really a replacement. Some people even prefer it. Seville oranges, or any other sour citrus fruit could work, if you live in a part of the world where such things are readily available. But I am guessing if you are really in the desperate situation of having to replace lemon juice with another ingredient, you are unlikely to have those alternatives either. Whatever you do, don’t use orange juice, it would just taste horrible. A few drops of any kind of vinegar, any acidic juice (cranberry for example), a particularly acidic white wine, etc. could all work. But really, here is where this idea of replacing everything meets its limits. You can’t really replace lemon juice and expect the magic of lemon juice. Some ingredients are just unique.
Preparation
Press blend, or get bashing with your sturdy cup. If it is a bit dry, add some of the cooking juices of the beans from your can or from your own cooking. When you get a smooth consistency, or in the case of cup/pot impro, when your arms give in, stop, and get dippin’.
Photo, courtesy of LittleRedKitchen.
