Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
Oh goodness, hummus is SO much easier and quicker than curries and masalas! For one thing hummus IS the dish, making seasonings is just one step in making a dish for which you still have to prep all the vegetables and everything. I finally gave up on Indian cooking, it was just so time-consuming.

To me it comes down to expense and waste. Even top quality exotic ingredients ... A pound of organic chickpeas is $4 - a bulb of organic local heirloom garlic, $2 - a bunch of organic parsley, if you don't grow your own, $1, two organic lemons, $2, half a cup of organic sesame seeds, roughly $1. That'll net you three or four pounds of hummus for $10, versus 6 or 8 oz in the store for $3 or $4, in a polypro tub that can't even be recycled most places, and there are only so many of those you can re-use.

Basically the only reason I even own a food processor is for chickpeas. If it weren't for hummus and falafel, I'd hardly ever have a use for it.
Yeah, I very rarely cook anything Indian because prepping the spices takes forever, and they can be expensive if you live somewhere without a significant Indian population.
I love hummus, but I don't eat so much of it that I can justify making it myself. (I'm also too lazy to clean the blender, but that's another matter.) Though I have to ask: Oak, where do you find sesame seeds in those quantities? I've only seen small jars in the Asian foods section (or small jars of tahini when I was living in Cleveland), and don't think I've ever seen them in bulk. Also, do you have a falafel recipe that you're willing to share?