French Fridays With Dorie - Carrot Hummus

Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color. 

~ W.S. Merwin

I won't flatter myself by assuming that some of you might remember me, but I've been here awhile, I've also been gone awhile. Over the past few months/weeks, I had experienced the loss of several people closest to me, but on the other side of the coin, I had also been doing fun new things like getting fit, running races for charitable causes and cooking things up on Instagram (without having to blog for it, I know...how awful).

But I'm back. Hopefully to stay a while longer. And this time, it's just to make a simple hummus for French Fridays with Dorie's weekly assignment. Oh, how I have missed cooking as part of this group!

Hummus won't be the very first thing we would think about when musing over French cuisine but according to Dorie, it had wiggled its way into the Gallic repertoire of dips alongside tzatziki and guacamole. And really, this Middle Eastern-inspired dip is nothing more than a simple and quick blending of chickpeas, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, cumin and seasonings in the blender. I added cooked carrots and Thai chili flakes to mine to switch and kick it up a little.

I also made very simple wholewheat crackers in four different flavors - matcha, black sesame, dragon fruit and mango - to go with the delicious dip. They make for an attractive and tasty addition to a hummus platter, so do try these next time you're inviting people over. Apologies for the picture quality on this post, I actually made the hummus and crackers a few weeks back and shared them on Instagram. The pictures were taken on my iPhone and not quite up to blog posting quality, but oh well, I hope you can still see how lovely it all looked put together.

I have the soulful Anthony Hamilton playing in my ear while I'm typing this post up, so let me share what's in my head (and heart) with you on this lovely Friday. 

Hope you'll all have a beautiful and peaceful weekend ahead!

Wholewheat Crackers

Ingredients:

1/3 cup whole wheat flour for each flavor

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Flavorings:

1 teaspoon matcha powder

2 teaspoons black sesame powder

1/4 cup water (for the dry flavorings above)

1/4 cup dragonfruit puree

1/4 cup mango puree

Method:

1. For each flavor separately, place dry ingredients in a bowl and add olive oil to this. Rub flour with fingertips until you get a breadcrumb texture.

2. Then add water or fruit puree gradually and knead until a pliable and slightly moist dough forms. With a rolling pin, roll each dough very thinly and cut into strips with a pizza cutter.

3. Bake in a preheated oven at 325C/175F for 15 minutes until crisp. Once cooled, store in airtight containers.