Weekend of Food Day 1: Light tapas dinner with home-made hummus (Jenius Social recipe)

The Weekend of Food 2014 (read more about the event here) was a resounding success, and it all started on Friday night with four of us tucking into a wide variety of ‘tapas’. As I had been to Barcelona the week before, I took the liberty of importing some jamon and lomo, and we combined these meats with a number of other delectable dishes, including home-made hummus. For this, I used Jenius Social’s recipe from their Mediterranean street food class (read more about that here).

This small plate concept is ideal for a casual get together, as you can sit around the table and nibble on bits and pieces of everything. I love doing this with friends, as we share everything, and the variety means there is always something (or many things) to suit everybody’s tastes. We had the following:

• Jamon iberico (cured Spanish ham), lomo iberico (Spanish cured pork loin) and chorizo balls heated in the oven (bought at Waitrose)
• Smoked mackerel pate from Waitrose
• Aubergine dip / baba ghanoush (not home-made this time, also from Waitrose)
• Fried halloumi slices (I can never get enough…)
• Green olives in olive oil, sprinkled with herbes de Provence
• Zweifel paprika crisps, imported from Switzerland
• Foie gras (which my flatmate brought from France), with fleur de sel sprinkled on top, accompanied by mini cornichons
• Ciabatta or similar bread heated in the oven (for the meats and foie gras)
• Pitta bread for the hummus, pate and aubergine dip, also heated in the oven
• And… the hummus

The recipe for the hummus is very simple. I previously posted a recipe here, but this one has fewer ingredients (no tahini!) and is a lot chunkier. It all depends on what you prefer – I like both recipes for different occasions!

• 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
• Good lug of olive oil
• 1 lemon, squeezed
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2-3 tbsp Greek yogurt

Throw everything into a blender and blend until slightly smooth, but still a little chunky. Add more olive oil if necessary. Serve!