Tahini Dressing (the ambrosia of the working class)

People familiar with "Annie's Goddess Dressing" will recognize the taste of this recipe because it's almost exactly the same...except not $6 a bottle.

You should think of this as hummus without the garbanzo beans. Very versatile sauce that, once made, you can use with almost anything you want. I've used it as a massage oil various times and each time I get compliments on its viscosity and garlicky smell.

The comments are usually something to the effect of "why is this massage oil so thick and smelly!?" Then I get slapped.

I also use it as a "green and bean" salad dressing.

Check it out...

1 garlic clove (mashed and chopped)
1/4 c. tahini
1/4 c. lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp hot water
salt
lemon zest (optional)

put all ingredients into a bowl except for the hot water. Put the hot water in last, mix around with a whisk or fork and watch as the magic of chemistry makes everything combine into a beautiful puke-colored sauce.

That's it.

Hummus you will kill for...literally

Alright, so we're all feeling the sharp sting of the recession, but hey, let's look at the bright side, ok?...OK!?

Great. So this is a time when a plethora of opportunities to start anew arise. For example, you can:

1. Intern at a non-profit until you decide what to do with your life (CAI internships available here)!
2. Travel to Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe or many other 3rd world countries to "find yourself" by doing "development" projects. Those stupid underdeveloped people will gladly help find you...
3. Go back to grad school and get that masters in social anthropology with a focus on gender studies concentrating on ecological imperialism so that you can emerge two years later with a greater understanding of the problems you already knew about!
4. Cook things for yourself by buying (shudder) ingredients and (shiver) putting them together into a (gasp) recipe.

Here's an excellent hummus recipe for those of you who wish to avoid throwing away thousands of dollars at Trader Joe's for their expensive (though delicious) hummus.

You'll need:

A food processor (or strong forearms)
2 tbsp tahini (it's like peanut butter except with sesame seeds. Look it up)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves mashed/chopped garlic
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 8 oz. can garbanzo beans
Sprinkle of paprika or parsley as a garnish
salt and pepper to taste

Cool. This is possibly the easiest recipe of all time.

Put everything except for the garbanzo beans into the food processor. Open the can of garbanzo beans and empty all but 1/4 of that yummy bean juice. Now dump the beans and remaining juice into the food processor. Process, and voila! Hummus!

Note: the consistency of the hummus is going to depend on the combination of oil, tahini, and water, so for a thick hummus, add more oil and tahini, and for a thinner hummus, add more bean juice.

As for the garnish, some experiments we've done to spice this recipe up are:

1. Adding cumin and honey for a sweet and spicy hummus
2. Adding tomato paste and/or sundried tomato spread
3. Adding rando herbage like Italian Herbs, basil, parsley, or rosemary

All are tasty. Enjoy the hummus and that delicious sense of accomplishment!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos

Alright, I promised I would put this recipe out by internet means. Here we go.

The basic idea here is that you want to make a paste that tastes good, put it in a tortilla with some cheese, and then eat it. I'm pretty sure this is a fundamental human desire.

Ingredients:

• Two sweet potatoes.
• One yellow onion or sweet onion. Either works.
• One of the big cans of black beans. Not the sixteen ounce ones, the jumbo cheap goya ones.
• 3 or so cloves of garlic.
• A substantial amount of olive oil.
• Salt, cumin, maybe some chili powder, figure it out yourself why don't you?

Also:

• Cheddar cheese
• Tortillas

So this is real easy. In fact, you can probably tell what's going to happen just by looking at the ingredients list.

1. Chop everything up. Mince the garlic, chop the onion into strips, sweet potatoes into little cubes (centimeter and a half?). Fryable size.
2. Fry it in olive oil. Garlic first, till brown, then add the onions, till soft. Then the sweet potatoes, till they get tender but not mushy. Keep adding olive oil throughout, preferably an excessive amount.
3. Pour in the black beans, juice and all. Bring it to a simmer. Heat down, just enough to keep it simmering.
4. Go grate some cheese. Come back and stir the bean thing with a spatula occasionally. You want to hit the point where the beans start breaking open and letting their goop out. It'll turn into a nice blobby mass, which if you've put in enough olive oil will basically not stick to the walls of the pan at all. Like I said, a lot of olive oil.
5. Somewhere during that last step, spice it. Add cumin. Add salt. Add whatever else you're into.
6. You thought that was enough cumin and salt, but you were wrong. Add more.
7. Have I mentioned that cumin has been scientifically proven to cure depression, gonorrhea, and amputation? More.
8. Take it off, let it cool. Eat it in a tortilla with cheese.
9. Put the rest in the fridge, clean up.
10. Wait twelve hours.
11. Fart copiously and joyously.

You're welcome.