Hummus and Hyperbole

I love hummus.

I have my friend Goose and lovely sister M to blame for this. Goose brought it to the house once when we were cooking together but it was entirely new to me, so I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Then, later, when my sister suggested we make some from the recipe of one of our fave bloggers I was prepared.

My life has never been the same! I love it as a sandwich spread, vegetable and chip dip, and even straight off of my fingers. It's that good.

As a vegetarian it's a great source of fiber, protein, and happy fats*. It's definitely become a staple in my diet, and now Kris's as well, over the past year and we both love it. I liked buying it from the store at first, but that can get expensive and it's very easy to make. Just throw together some chickpeas, tahini, water, lime and salt and you've got a little taste of awesome in your blender!

*My special term for healthy, non-animal fat

When we first moved here to Cowtown I started shopping at a local Kroger, which I love dearly. One day, while moseying through the produce section I saw them. These cute little green bean pods with....

Could it be?

Fresh chickpeas????

I've always used the canned, light brown colored chickpeas but heaven help us all! They had fresh chickpeas! I grabbed a big bag and filled it with 2 pounds of the little lovelies and made my way to the register. It caused a bit of a flurry because the girl at the checkout desk had no idea what they were but I finally got through the line and back home. After unloading groceries I turned on some good music, plopped down on the couch, and started shelling. I was almost done when Kris got home from work and ya know, he's probably never come home to a giddier me. I'm just tellin' the truth. I finished shelling, boiled them lightly, and then proceeded to make the most amazing hummus the world has ever seen. Seriously. We probably ate half of it that night. It was green, as opposed to the typical brown, fresh tasting and we had tons of it. For the next month or so as we would run out I would go back to the Kroger and replenish our stock. Each and every time they were confused about what my fabulous beans were but I still waited patiently.

Until.

One day I returned to Kroger and they were gone. No where to be found.

Little chickpeas! Where are you?

Gone, my friends. Gone.

It was devastating but we made it through. We went through a couple weeks period of salsa making and it was good, too. The days of fresh salsa were days of mourning but then I decided that enough was enough! We're not too good for canned chickpeas and I need hummus in my life again. Salsa and hummus can be friends, right? So I marched on over to the Kroger, bought a can of chickpeas and made more hummus with a fierce resolve. K was excited, I was excited, and Gershwin was under my feet trying to catch the things I drop. Don't worry, it's normal. This hummus was going to be wonderful, I tell you! It's the same recipe! It's the same food processor! The same maker! Great hummus to the rescue.

That hummus sucked, y'all.

It was watery and weird and brown like normal people hummus. It just wasn't the same. I even went back and added sun-dried tomatoes which is one of my favorite hummus add-ins but it just wasn't right. Since that terrible day in September we've only had one or two little containers of plain brown hummus from Aldi in our fridge. We've had a ton of fresh salsa and I'm working on perfecting my recipe, so beauty has come from pain. But where has the hummus gone? Kroger, why must you do this to us?

So, this dorky blog post is here for one reason. This is my formal plea to Kroger...

Please, for the love of produce, bring back the chickpeas!!!!!