Diary: Weird Tacos

[degringolade]

The Railroad Trestle by my Apartment

So I have been working on important things the past little while like how to eat well using as little money and energy as possible.  Like it or not, in order to do this I have had to ditch a lot of the traditions of middle America and adopt traditions that came across the ocean.  

I suppose that this is easier for me than a lot of other "white boys".  Growing up in a poor Italian heritage family, I learned early that polenta and pasta and garden veggies were how you are and that meat was more of a condiment than a separate course.  I suppose that my latest foray into frugal living can be traced to that early training.  Getting a large hunk of meat on the plate was a "first of the month" event for my family seeing as that is when the paychecks came in.  The middle of the month was heavily weighted toward casseroles using lots of potatoes and pasta and the last week before payday was polenta and pasta and what we call "torte" but was actually panbread.  

So today I am putting up a recipe for hummus.  I think that the influx of middle eastern origin folks has done us huge favors, I can't remember seeing garbanzo's as an option before the 1990's and even then they were considered odd.  Now I have become a fan.  I cannot for the life of me decide which I like best, refried Mexican beans or hummus.  Both cultures would probably be offended by the comparison, but both are super tasty bean sludge.  I use my hummus as an ingredient in "Syrian Tacos" with corn tortillas layered with hummus, cheap meat sauted with spices, and topped with an amalgam of pickled veggies.  If I am feeling especially ambitious, I will use homemade naan instead of the corn tortillas.

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1 cup dried garbazos cooked for 55 minutes with natural release in the magic instant pot (drained: reserve bean juice)
1 heaping teaspoon salt
1/4 cup bean juice
1/4 cup lemon juice (don't be stupid, buy the stuff in bottles)
3 teaspoons chopped garlic (again, the stuff in bottles is just dandy, thank you
1/4 cup tahini (you can use peanut putter in a pinch, it ain't bad)
1/4 cup oil (preferably olive oil, but really, it doesn't taste that different with peanut or corn oil)
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon sumac

Now, I am not suggesting in any way that you go out and purchase something, but my experience using a wand blender to grind everything up works fine.  I bought mine at Goodwill for $3.99 over ten years ago and it is still going strong (Krups makes good equipment).
 

Comments

mmmmm, sumac

[chefxh]

Gotta find a source for sumac. Weird, considering how many spice shops there are, but it must not sell in Catalunya.

glad you responded

[degringolade]

Sumac is great stuff, I don't use it enough.

Thanks for the quick response, I forgot to add in the garlic in the original post, it is fixed now

Changes

[degringolade]

So, I made another batch today: Same size, 1 cup dry chickpeas.

I am thinking that maybe a half cup of the bean juice instead of a quarter cup.

Today I used dry garlic granules, some onion powder, and a teaspoon of garam masala along with the cayenne and sumac. Still pretty tasty, but maybe only 1/2 tsp of the garam masala

total energy use for cooking and blending is 0.280 kWh for around a nickel.

Chickpea cost = $0.46
Tahini cost = $1.30
Lemon Juice = $0.40
Olive Oil = $1.15
Spices, I'm calling it $0.10

It still isn't "cheap" but it is cheaper than what you buy in the store