When Garbanzos Go Mexican: My Mexi-terranean Hummus

So admittedly I’m inspired by the Mexi-terranean concept of making a fusion between bold and flavourful Mexican cuisine and healthy ‘blue zone’-alike Mediterranean one. 

One of the ingredients on my radar now is chickpeas. Or garbanzos if you ask a Mexican about it. They play a very tiny role in Mexican cooking as compared to beans, but featured heavily in the Mediterranean, so I thought – why not bring them to the forefront and add some Mexican twist to it. 

I started with an idea of making refried chickpeas, as something similar to the refried beans.

So following my recipe for refried beans, I’ve cooked the chickpeas.

I must admit, the result was OK but definitely far from mind-blowing. For starters, it was quite bland; secondly, the texture was quite weird, and overall, the whole mouthfeel wasn’t something I’d be dreaming about to repeat.

I was a bit disapointed, but hey ho – I’m conducting experiments and checking what would work.

My next assumption was to bring some bold Mexican flavour that would complement chickpeas well. After a quick brainstorm, I thought about Salsa Macha. This chilli oil styled salsa uses nuts and sesame, and the latter go brilliantly with chickpeas.  

Here is what I’ve used for Salsa Macha:

• 350 ml sunflower oil 
• ¼ white onion, roughly chopped 
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled 
• 15 tsp arbol chili powder 
• 30 g sesame seeds
• 1 tsp salt
• 30 g toasted peanuts 

Method:

Start by heating oil in a small saucepan. Once hot, reduce the heat to low and add the onion. Fry for about 3 minutes, making sure it does not burn or get too brown. Then add the garlic cloves and fry for 2 minutes. Add the arbol chilli powder, mix well and fry for another minute. Don’t let it frying for too long otherwise it would taste bitter. Now add half of the sesame seeds and the salt. Fry all the ingredients together over a very low heat for 3 minutes, stirring from time to time to avoid the chillies burning. Turn off the heat and leave the oil and chillies to cool completely. 

Once cool, add everything into a blender and blitz until the chillies are broken down into little pieces. Return the salsa macha to the saucepan and add the remaining sesame seeds and peanuts, mixing well. The texture of the salsa macha needs to be a bit chunky, with some chilli seeds still visible. Store in a sterilised jar in the cupboard for up to 6 months.

I’ve poured a heaped teaspoon of salsa macha over refried chickpeas. Its vibrant flavour definitely made the whole dish more exciting but it definitely sort of clashed with the texture.

So my next hypothesis was to turn chickpeas into a Mexican-inspired hummus – with tahini but adding coriander and lime juice to it. And serving with salsa macha again.

What I’ve used for hummus:

• 400 g cooked chickpeas and the liquid
• 2 tsp tahini
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Method:

Blend all the ingredients gradually, adding the liquid until you reach the desired consistency. You might need to add a bit more salt (I just don’t like to use a lot of it, personally) and adjust lime juice or olive oil if you like it more acidic or more smooth.

Mexi-terranean Hummus & Salsa Macha: The Verdict

When I served the hummus with a teaspoon of salsa matcha, and added some corn tortilla chips to scoop it. The result was truly exciting and I highly recommend you try.

So to sum up, not all combinations would eventually work, but activating the creative cooking juices allows to get some surprisingly tasty result. This hummus with salsa macha is truly Mexi-terranean – by flavour and by concept. And what’s most it is vegan and healthy.