Soda Bread and Home Made Hummus

It was a Saturday afternoon, we needed something to eat, the shopping wasn't coming until Sunday, I had a pack of Cauldron falafel rapidly going out of date, no bread...what should I do?

Rummage through the kitchen, a couple of bits of salad, a jif lemon, half a pint of milk, some flour, a tin of chick peas....an idea starts to formulate. A quick look on the Internet and through the cookery books and hey presto....I am making something out of nothing.

Soda bread, with warm falafel, salad and home made hummus. Yum. And, unlike other types of bread that take lost of kneading effort and rising time, soda bread is quick and easy and is the second bread I've blogged about which is ready in no time and can be made from store cupboard items when you're in a fix (see also flat breads).

 I used River Cottage Everyday - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as my inspiration for the soda bread.

Soda Bread 

Lightly dust a baking tray with flour and heat the oven to GM6/200C/400F.

This recipe does call for buttermilk, which I know the majority of us don't have lurking in the back of our fridges the day before shopping day, however, there are a couple of alternatives that you can try (source).

• If you have natural yoghurt use 1/3 milk to 2/3 yoghurt
• or if you have Greek yoghurt use a 50:50 mix of Greek yoghurt and milk
• or try 500 mls semi skimmed or full fat milk and add 2 tablespoons lemon juice (or even white wine vinegar)

Get a large mixing bowl and sift in 500g plain white flour along with 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda and 1 teaspoon of sea salt. Make a well in the centre, pour in 400 mls of buttermilk (or buttermilk substitute - see above) stirring with a wooden spoon until you have a ball of soft dough (add a few tablespoons of milk to help bring it together if you need to). The dough needs very little work, tip it onto a floured board and knead for about a minute just to bring it into a ball shape. Place it on the baking tray and with a sharp bread knife cut a cross into the top. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes until the loaf sounds hollow when you tap the underside (take care not to burn yourself when doing this bit - use a tea towel!)

While the bread is baking you can make some hummus.

Hummus

Hummus or humus is a Middle Eastern dip made from chick peas and sesame paste and is ideal for crudités,  bread sticks, crisps,tortillas,  fresh bread or to accompany some salad or couscous, it's very versatile and very easy to make and really you should make it to taste how you like it.

You will need your food processor.

I used a can of chick peas drained which I tipped into the processor along with 2 large tablespoons of tahini paste, half a teaspoon of ground cumin (leave it out if you don't like it - I love it!), a couple of peeled cloves of garlic, a good squeeze of lemon juice, a little olive oil and then process until smooth adding cold water until you have your preferred consistency ..you may like it coarse and grainy or it's equally good smooth and the consistency of thick whipped cream, I like it somewhere in the middle, season with some salt, season to taste. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with paprika, hot or sweet, whichever you prefer. You can also sprinkle with seeds - pumpkin, sesame, poppy or a mix or add some whole chick peas to garnish. You can adapt it to your taste more garlic, more lemon juice, whizz in some paprika and red pepper - whatever you fancy.

We served ours with some salad vegetable and baked felafel's, it was a lovely warm, fresh lunch which we picked at with some left over wine and bottles of beer. It was all ready within an hour, with no need for yeast and rising time. The soda bread is beast eaten fresh out of the oven, but if you do have any left over toast if for breakfast the next morning, it's great with jam or eggs or cheese.