Zesty & Creamy Vegan Roasted Zucchini Za’atar Pasta
& Hummus Masabacha
The Chickpeas & a meal prep tip
When I make chickpeas, I always make about a pound of them, which I will make a bunch of things with over the week from stews to tempeh to chickpea patties to just roasting them for salads. I also love to have them for breakfast with garlic sautéed in oil, herbs, and veggies. This is one of my meal prep strategies.
My Basic Chickpea recipe
I don’t fret much about my chickpea recipe, I just soak chickpeas overnight at room temp, change the water. and simmer with a couple of bay leafs, salt and black pepper for about 40 minutes or until soft. Some people would add a couple teaspoons of baking soda to make the cooking liquid more alkaline and this helps soften the chickpeas in the same way that acidity toughens them, but I don’t even bother with that.
I try to make it as easy or easier than opening a can. That way, I am never daunted by the process, nor wary of making a big mess, and I just do it. No procrastination at all.
This helps me save money because If I buy chickpeas at bulk prices instead of paying 2 dollars per can of organic chickpeas, which may be too soft and mushy for all the things I want to do with it anyway.
I just freeze whatever I don’t use.
Hummus Masabacha
If you’ve never had masabacha style hummus, you are in for a treat. There seems to be dozens of different ways to spell it like musabbaha, msabbaha, and so on. I would go on but autocorrect is making it a huge pain in the bootie. It roughly translates to “swimming” in Hebrew and Arabic because there are whole chickpeas swimming in it. Also, there’s a little more tahini and the tahini isn’t totally combined with the hummus, it’s swirled to create more texture, creating a more party like situation in your mouth.
I am sharing my recipe with you because this is what I use to make my Zesty & Creamy Vegan Roasted Zucchini Za’atar Pasta.
Hummus Masabacha
Ingredients
1/2 lb of cooked chickpeas, one cup set aside
1/4 cup or less of cooking water
1/8 cup of tahini
2 cloves of garlic
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp of za’atar, divided
1 tsp of smoke paprika or Aleppo pepper to taste
a bunch of chopped parsley
A good olive oil for drizzling on top
Directions:
Step 1: Combine one cup of chickpeas with tahini and a tbsp of za’atar, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Step 2: To a food processor, add the remaining chickpeas with the 2 cloves of garlic, lemon, cumin, salt and pepper seasoning and 1/2 the chickpea water and blend until smooth, add more water if necessary.
Step 3: in a serving bowl, swirl together the chickpea mixture with the chickpea and tahini mixture without fulling combining them, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with the remaining za’atar and smoked paprika or Aleppo. Top with parsley
Options: You can add other things to step two such as roasted pepper, roasted garlic, preserved lemons, lemon zest…you can even add pumpkin puree. And you can also top it with pine nuts, roasted garlic, spring onions, whatever makes your tastebuds smile. Be Creative.
Creamy Za’atar Pasta
To be perfectly honest, you could just combine a package of cooked pasta with a cup or so of homemade or store bought humus, add some water, veggies or tomatoes, salt and pepper and za’atar and maybe some olive oil -depending on the fat content of your hummus- and have a delicious meal in under 5 minutes, which is one of the reasons why I always have hummus on hand. Or, you can make this slightly elongated version where I sauté some onions and garlic, roast some zucchini and zest a lemon. It’s still very easy.
Here is my recipe for two empty nesters.
Zesty & Creamy Vegan Roasted Zucchini Za’atar Pasta
Ingredients:
Two medium Zucchini roasted at 400 degrees with a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper, and a pinch of garlic powder
1/4 cup of chopped onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 tablespoon of Olive Oil
1 cup of hummus masabacha
Zest of one Lemon
The juice of 1/2 lemon
2 teaspoons of za’atar to taste
1/2 a box of gluten free pasta, I prefer bow ties and shells for this
Directions:
Step 1: Cut zucchini into half moons and roast at 400 F for about 15 minutes.
Step 2: Begin boiling water in a big pot.
Step 3: Sauté onion in 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil for a couple minutes or until translucent then add garlic and sauté for a minute more.
Step 4: zest lemon, and juice half of it. Zest it first.
Step 5: Gently boil 1/2 the pasta package per instructions and until al dente.
Step 6: Drain pasta, reserving about a 1/2 cup of water. Don’t rinse the pasta.
Step 7:Return pasta back to the pan, add all the ingredients, but save some za’atar for the top. Add enough reserve water to make it creamy. Season to taste and adjust the spices or add more lemon juice in accordance to your liking. You know what you like, let this dish be an expression of you.
Step 9: plate it, sprinkle some za’atar on top…take a selfie with it and tag me @StevieLynnWeisend