Toasted Pine Nut Hummus and Za’atar Pitta

• Open and drain your chickpeas.  I tend to boil them for 2 minutes in water as it removes any ‘tinny’ flavours – optional but recommended!
• In a dry pan toast your pine nuts – get it nice and hot and keep an eye, tossing them about regularly.  When they are golden remove from the pan and set aside.
• In a food processor or whizzer of some sort add your tahini and lemon juice.  Whizz for about a minute to whip up the tahini.
• Add the olive oil, cumin, crushed garlic cloves and a generous pinch of salt and whizz for another 30 seconds.
• Add half the chickpeas and half the pine nuts and whizz until smooth.
• Add the rest of the chickpeas and most of the nuts – keeping some back for garnish.
• Whizz until smooth.  Now you might like to add about 30ml of water to get the right consistency – add little at a time until it’s as you like it.  Taste and season with salt.
• To serve sprinkle your paprika or sumac and your remaining pine nuts.

For the Pittas

• Tear 2 or 3 pitta breads into pieces – I like to keep it irregular and rustic
• Toss in a bowl whilst drizzling olive oil – about a tbsp or two.
• Heat a large frying pan and throw in the bread, keep turning them until they start to go crispy and brown a little.
• Remove fro the heat and sprinkle over the za’atar.
• Serve on a plate alongside the hummus.