Hummus Surprise Soup

I saw this recipe over at Pinch My Salt and thought, "Hey, I like hummus!" followed by "I think I'll try this." And the rest is happy hummus history.

It's basically hummus in soup form and just like Pinch My Salt claims, the soup is so fast and easy it takes only about 15 minutes to have it on the table and ready to tempt your taste buds.

High in fiber, low in fat, high on taste and great with a side of homemade pita it got enthusiastic thumbs up from all six of us. How often do you hear that?

I've tweaked the recipe just a little bit so I'm linking to the original but publishing my own version. Mine makes 6-8 servings while the original is a much smaller batch, has a little more heat but less spice.

4 14-ounce cans of garbanzo beans (chick peas)
3 tablespoons light olive oil
3 tablespoons garlic
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 14-ounce can chicken broth
16 ounces cubed cooked lamb or chicken or beef (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
fresh lime for topping
fresh cilantro for garnish

Dump the cans of garbanzo beans, liquid and all, into a food processor or blender and puree until the beans are as smooth as possible. It won't be perfectly smooth and that's okay. Meanwhile, saute the minced garlic in the olive oil until it starts to brown then add the garbanzo bean puree to the pot. Add the ginger, coriander, cumin and broth--you can certainly use fresh grated ginger but when I threw this together I realized I was out of the fresh stuff and only had ground ginger. It worked. You can make the soup as thick or as thin as you want by adding more broth or water to the soup at this point. I also threw in some leftover rosemary and honey glazed leg of lamb that we'd had the night before which made the soup--well, more meaty. You could use another meat or just leave out the meat for a nice vegan dish.

Simmer the soup for ten minutes to let the spices sink in, more if you have the time. Season with the salt and pepper then top with freshly chopped cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice for emphasis.

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Today's the last day to enter the Write-Away Contest--you have until midnight to get those entries in!

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Has everyone seen Iron Man? Andrew and I saw a preview for it months ago and I laughed out loud it looked so stupid (sorry). Yes, stupid--kind of like a bad Transformers knockoff (not that the original was really worth duplicating).

But then I kept hearing how great it was and how it was getting five-star reviews and it tempted my curiosity a bit. I love a good movie and Friday night Andrew and I were feeling downright reckless so we caught a late showing. At 9 o'clock! We're living on the edge I tell you, what next--a midnight show?

I gotta say it lives up to the reviews--it was a solid A movie, loved every minute of it.

The casting was perfect, I especially loved the chemistry between Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts) and Robert Downey, Jr. (Tony Stark) who have a modern Bond-Moneypenny thing going.

There's enough laughs to keep it from taking itself too seriously, Pepper wears smashing black dresses in all her scenes and Robert Downey, Jr. seems rather in his element as the playboy looking for a cause. It was a tad predictable but the whole movie was just cool. No other word to describe. Next to Batman Begins it's probably my favorite superhero movie ever--though Spiderman II was pretty good. This was better. And cooler. Just cool. Did I mention it was cool? Worth every penny of $19.50.

Oh and don't forget to stay to the very end after the credits--you'll get the set up for the sequel.

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