Briathrail // Albert 2MNG

This is imported from my old Tumblr blog posts.

I’m currently trying on a Mediterranean dinner diet.

For the past two weeks, I had rice meals for dinner only 8 times. I was actively trying to shed the rice. The rest of the dinner days, I tried filling them out with new light recipes. I had 2 slices of fried SPAM with baba ganoush. I had pickled bitter gourds with brunoise’d onions and tomatoes, chopped parsley and chili. I had sausages in two sugarless wheat buns, with ketchup and mustard. I had a whole cucumber with tzatziki sauce. And for twice, I had hummus.

Hummus is as easy as baba ganoush, but baba ganoush is cheaper, since eggplant is cheaper than chickpeas. Hummus needs tahini, lemon juice, salt, garlic, pepper, paprika, extra virgin olive oil, and chickpeas. But as I had difficulty procuring tahini, I had to opt for toasted sesame seeds and a splash of sesame oil in the blender (same with the baba ganoush), to approximate tahini which is based in sesame. Not as close in taste as tahini, but without it the hummus lacked a subtle taste.

So last Friday, I ate again at Hummus Elijah @ Makati, just because I liked their very very good dishes, and after a meal I spied upon their counter rack, and I saw one word that made me more excited: tahini. I eagerly asked the waiter how much are the variants. One jar was 600, he said, and the other one was 300. I bought the cheaper variant, and whoosh, I had tahini.

And then Sunday came when I had some me-time at my condo, I had all the ingredients (finally), so I made hummus again. But instead of pita bread, I had two wheat pandesal (lightly toasted and halved) and julienned carrots (one whole). 

It was de-li-cious. Well, close to what was in Hummus Elijah, but still very flavorful (bye, sesame oil). I had a bowlful made from one big can of chickpeas (the dry ones are too pricey for my liking). And it was filling. I felt full but my stomach ain’t stuffed. 

Well, I also accompanied the hummus with a spicy chimichurri variant (chopped parsley, olive oil, finely chopped chili, no garlic or onion) that went well with the hummus and carrots.

Three things: I have to buy more parsley and olive oil, stock up on eggplants and chickpeas, and maybe some more carrots and wheat buns. Or at least until I get to find more lighter dinner recipes.