Traffic Light Hummus

This is the winning recipe to the best looking Hummus at the World's First Hummus Making Competition (18 May 2008, Hampstead, London), by Ms Wendy Curls and myself.

For the Mosh Pit (ie. Big bowl of base before you mix in flabours) blend the following by hand or by blender:

• 2 cups boiled chickpeas (soaked overnight & boiled till tender with dash of salt)
• 1/4 cups olive oil
• 1/5 cups tahini (sesame paste)
  
• Juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• Salt & pepper to taste
  

For each of the following blends here are the extras you need:

Yellow Hummus (Original)

• 1/2 teaspoon of cumin
• garnish with crushed walnuts
  

Green Hummus

• 6 - 8 chopped green olives
• 1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• garnish with few more sprigs of coriander
  

Red Hummus

• 5 Roughly chopped sundried tomatoes (don't blend so that you can still taste the chunks)
  
• 2 -3 teaspoons (yes that's right) Hungarian paparika
• another 2 - 3 teaspoons lemon juice
• garnish with paparika
  

Serve in a trio and garnish with a drizzle of olive oil.

Blogger's Note: You may remember another winning recipe from my Melbourne Cup spread in 2006 that is done uniquely by replacing tahini with sour cream. On this occasion my sour cream was found to be un-kosher for a Jewish festival, and hence banned from the competition. But I would still highly encourage you to try that recipe should you be able to source some kosher sour cream, which I have been told is in fact very common.

Lastly but not leastly I would like to thank my partner in cooking crime, Ms Wendy Curls for her energy and enthusiasm and utterly fantastic cooperation in making our win possible.