Presto Reverso

Cauliflower Hummus with Chickpea Crackers
(No cracker toppings here--a remark that
will make more sense once you read the recipe.)

Here's the usual scenario: hummus made from chickpeas with cauliflower florets for dipping.

And then . . . presto reverso . . . hummus made from cauliflower with chickpea crackers for dipping.

My son, Julien, and I are probably the only ones amused by this role-swapping idea, and we expended quite a few brain cells and person hours trying to come up with other such ideas. However, this is the idea that sparked it all, and it came about by happenstance.

It started with me cruising through Food52's book called Genius Recipes. I found the title intriguing, largely because I was skeptical of this word "genius." (In my professional life I probably edit about 3,000 recipes a year and I've been doing this for 3+ decades, so do the math.) Skepticism aside, two ideas stuck out, so I adopted them: Yotam Ottolenghi's hummus and Dan Barber's whole-grain crackers.

Much experimentation (no, really, MUCH experimentation) later and I ended up with the following crackers. And Yotam's hummus also took a left turn in my test kitchen and ended up being made with cauliflower (though the chickpea version is decidedly yummy).

Chickpea Crackers

100 g chickpea flour (aka besan, garbanzo flour, farina di ceci)
11/4 teaspoons Tajín seasoning, Trader Joe's chile-lime salt, or kosher salt
Generous 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
160 g* garlic broth** or water
2 tablespoons oil (any type; sometimes I do a mix of olive oil and sesame oil)
Topping (e.g., black sesame seeds, cracked sunflower seeds)
Smoked sea salt (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with oil. 
2. In a bowl, stir together the flour, Tajín, and pepper. Make a well in the center. Add the garlic broth and oil. Stir to get a pancake batter, whisking to get rid of most of the lumps.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. It does not need to go into the corners. Sort of let it find its own level. Sprinkle with the topping and sea salt (if using).
4. Bake for 11/2 hours. Carefully flip and bake another 15 to 30 minutes. Sometimes it will look done, but it will be just shy of crisp. So let it go as long as possible without burning.
5. Break it into pieces and store airtight.

*160 grams of broth/water is the same as 160 milliliters. But easier to measure with a scale than eyeballing in a measuring cup.
**Just cut up some garlic, put in a glass measuring cup with some water and a little salt, and heat in the microwave like you're making tea. Strain out the garlic. Boom.


Cauliflower Hummus

About 300 g (10 oz) cauliflower florets (to get 250 g/9 oz cooked)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 strip lemon zest
80 g tahini, peanut butter, or sunbutter (~ 5 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
2 tablespoons lemon juice, or more to taste 

1. In a medium saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the cauliflower, garlic, and lemon zest. Drain well. (At this point I weigh out about 250 grams...you could probably just use all the cauliflower.) Set aside to cool.
2. When the cauliflower/garlic/lemon zest mixture is cool, place it in a food processor and add the tahini and salt. Process to a puree (it's OK if it's still a little coarse; it just shouldn't have any visible chunks).
3. With the machine running, drizzle in the lemon juice and keep processing for a minute or so. Scrape down the sides a couple of times. Taste and see if you want more salt and/or lemon juice. Process until it's ultra smooth.