Hummus

Still too hot to cook much, we whipped up a quick dinner of creamy, homemade hummus with whole-wheat pita bread accented with bread and butter pickles and a few kalamata olives. This hummus was adapted from Best-Ever Vegetarian edited by Linda Fraser; for a more straight-forward version, leave out the sun-dried tomatoes and liquid smoke.

1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes

6 tablespoons lemon juice

4 tablespoons tahini

1 drop liquid smoke

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

freshly ground black pepper

freshly ground salt

paprika

Place the garbanzo beans in a blender and pulse to break up the beans. Then add the garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon juice, tahini and liquid smoke. Process until smooth. Blend in just enough olive oil to achieve the desired consistency. Add cumin, pepper and salt to taste. Dust with paprika.