Healthy Eating: Food and Health with Healthy Eating Recipes by Lucy Hyland at Food For Living

Thursday 21st July

Check out my article today in the Cork Independent for how to keep healthy this summer easily!

http://www.corkindependent.com/stories/item/3253/2011-29/Food-for-Living—Handy-Hummus

Handy Hummus

I must admit, I do think that hummus is one of the handiest dips. I have about 10 different ones on my website www.foodforliving.ie, using different beans, spices and citrus flavours. One of the reason why I feel it is so useful is that it can be used as a spread, a dressing for salads, an on the run snack and a topping for your favourite meals. However, for those who do not have the 5 minutes it takes to make your own hummus at home, you can always pop into your local store and buy some. So what do you need to know?

Hummus basically consists of chickpeas with blended sesame seeds (tahini), some lemon juice, garlic, salt and a little oil. It contains a perfect blend of protein and carbohydrates making it a great snack for weight loss, as well as being packed full of fibre meaning that it will keep you full for longer.

The key thing to buying premade foods is to check the label. When I checked the labels on all of the shop bought hummus I could find, I was looking for a) how much of the dip was made up of the main ingredient (chickpeas), how much salt and oil was used and what type of oil was used. I noticed how some hummus pots (I spotted at Marks and Spencers and Tescos) only contained 41-43% chickpeas meaning that they were ‘filling’ their products with oils – increasing the fat content!

Tesco tend to use poor quality ‘vegetable’ for their dips and their fat content tended to be high, even on their low fat range. Marks and Spencers used slightly better quality rapeseed oil but again tended to use a lot of it. Supervalu used canola oil in smaller quantities but tended to use a lot of preservatives. The best brand I could find was ‘Just Food’ who used only extra virgin olive oil and used only 7.5g of fat per tub (half to a third LESS than the supermarket brands)!

Hummus and summer salad wraps

2 tortilla wraps
½ tub hummus
1 red pepper
1 large handful of rocket
2 spring onions (finely chopped)
Cracked pepper

Place the tortilla wraps on a board.
Spread the hummus over wraps and then top with the salads and a sprinkle of pepper.
Wrap and this makes the perfect lunch for work.

Dairy free, sugar free