Home Made Hummus and 'A Girl Called Jack' Book Review.

Hummus is a great thing to have in your fridge, it's a brilliant snack, can be incorporated into meals, and its super healthy and full of protein. I've used it for open sandwiches, cheese and hummus toasties, and jacket potato fillings and that's only scratching the surface. In the shops, I also find it crazily expensive! But fear not my friends, you can make it really really easily, and at a fraction of the price. Using just garlic, chickpeas, lemon and some herbs my hummus came in at well under £1 for a very generous amount.  

I like my hummus a bit chunky so I just used a potato masher. If you want a smoother finish you could always use a food processor - but it's definitely not required, I could have mashed mine more.

Shop brought hummus goes out of date pretty quickly, but this way you can control the portion size, it keeps for 3 days in the fridge (if its separated a bit by the third day, just mix in a splash of water and you're ready to tuck in), and you can freeze it in smaller portions and then just pop one into the fridge to defrost ready for the next day.

I followed a recipe from Jack Monroe's cook book 'A Girl Called Jack', you can get lots of recipes from her blog, but I would really recommend the book too. Not everything is vegetarian, but it's one of my all time favorite cookbooks. It's got a whole section on pulses, which I love, and while I haven't tried it yet, I can see myself being able to adapt the meaty recipes for my veggie needs. 

All the recipes are straight forward and non fuss. Its full of basic, but very tasty, staple recipes; but with little tips that tell you how to jazz things up if you want to make it a bit more special. If I follow the instructions, I know it will turn out great, which is great if you want to try something a bit different but don't have loads of time to experiment with.

Jack also writes all her recipe with the aim of keeping to a small budget, so it's great for student cooking, or just anyone that wants to save a bit of money. Everything is still full of flavor and super scrummy so you don't feel like you're missing out on anything food wise, and you gain lots money wise. Definitely give her kidney bean burgers a go!