Fatteh Hummus - Its not just a dip its a meal!

As a newly wed, coming back to Kuwait after spending quite a few years in India, was a weird feeling to say the least. One might say, it should be a good feeling, Kuwait is after all were I was born and bought up. But the life back in India got the better of me.

The non stop bustling on the streets, the culture, the people and vibe of the country, I didn't want to live it behind. Compared to India, Kuwait is a very quiet place.I feared how my old friends in Kuwait moved on to doing better things in life. How I would spend the whole day at home, while M - the husband  would be off to work. Just to many questions at the time.

But there were a few things that almost helped me take the final decision to move here. Food is one of them. Or well if you know me, food was the major reason. You see most of my time in India, I spend my time in a smallish town in Rajasthan. Where I ate nothing but mom's home cooked meals and often time the Indian street food. I deeply missed the fine dining, the bistro cafe's, the fast food (yes, back then it made sense) and most importantly I missed hummus. When I got back here, newly wed, first time entering the kitchen, one of the first things I wanted to learn was to make hummus. I never wanted to be without it ever again.

Fatteh is the Arabic term used for a dish that uses pieces of stale bread as the foundation of the dish. Hummus as you know refers to chickpeas. A fatteh dish has countless variations, with each country having there own version. Instead of chickpeas if you use chicken its called chicken fatteh, with lamb its called lamb fatteh and so on. 

I like to serve it more as meal with some warm pita bread than a dip but it certainly can be used as a dip. Sometimes I top it with leftover roasted chicken or meat.  Here I have divided the recipe in such a way that the first half will give you the basic humus recipe and then on making it a fatteh.

Fatteh Hummus

Click here for printable recipe 

Serves : 2 

Ingredients 

For hummus

1 can chickpeas *

1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 clove garlic (crushed)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

3 tbsp tahini paste **

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp water

1 green chilly (optional)

Salt to taste

For Fatteh

1 khubz / pita bread   (I used whole wheat) ***

1/2 cup yogurt

1/4 cup parsley (finely chopped)

1/8 cup sliced almonds

3 tbsp olive oil

Note

* If using fresh boiled chickpeas retain some of the boiling water and replace the water in the recipe with this boiled water.

** No, if you don't have tahini or not making your own, you are not eating hummus. You just eating pureed chickpeas. You should, must, have to have tahini paste. Tahini refers to white sesame seeds which are made into a paste. It should be easy available in Middle Eastern stores. 

*** Khubz is local flat bread similar to pita bread. Most of the Middle Eastern countries have a version of this flat bread but the general term used in rest of the world is pita.Use a pita bread with pocket for this.

Method

Get your food processor out. I have a hate and love relationship with mine but today it behaved. Add in  lemon juice, garlic, cumin, water, tahini, green chilly and salt.

This is your base tahini sauce.

Add the chickpeas (retain about 2 tbsp whole to add back later). Pulse and in the process also drizzle in the olive oil. Add a tbsp or more of water if desired. This is hummus. Taste, say yum and come back, things get better from here.

Preheat the oven to 160 C and dry out the khubz till its nice and crisp. Make sure you tear the pocket and  get  two sheets of khubz before you get it in the oven. Takes about 15 minutes. This may differ  according to thickness and staleness of the khubz.

Meanwhile, mix in the yogurt, whole chickpeas and parsley into the hummus.

Once the khubz is done, break in to small pieces and mix with the above.

Lightly warm the olive oil and tip in the sliced almonds. Let it warm up for about a minute and take the oil off the stove.

Drizzle it on the fatteh hummus. Sprinkle with paprika and serve with fresh khubz or falafel (that requires another post).

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