Happy Halloween! To celebrate I made an eerie olive hummus that is perfect for your Halloween parties. Using just ten ingredients that you probably already have in the pantry :: dispensa, you can whip up this appetizer in just 10 minutes. I served this hummus with a homemade whole grain bread that actually looked like a mummy after I sliced it, so I added the eyes. What a coincidence! This olive hummus is also great with pita chips, crackers or raw vegetables.
Unfortunately here in Italy, Halloween is not celebrated like it is back in the states. In recent years there have been some costume parties in some bars or trick or treating for kids at stores (they usually don’t go house to house), but nothing like the grand Halloween theme parks, haunted houses :: le case stregate, apple bobbing, decorations, pumpkin carving and costume parties that I grew up with.
Fear not; if you live in Italy, you are not deprived of a costume festivity for Italians celebrate Carnevale :: Carnival, a multiple day festivity that takes place in February. All around Italy, and especially Venice, there are street parades, masquerade balls, and large street parties. If you are planning a trip to Italy in February, it is definitely a tourist highlight. If you’ve already been to carneval in Italy, what did you think of this festivity? Did you like it more than Halloween?
- 3 tablespoons (40g) tahini
- 1 small lemon, juiced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cumin
- One 15-ounce can (425g) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- ½ cup (90g) black olives
- 4 tbsp water
- Greek yogurt, as needed (optional)
- 3 olives (optional, for the spider)
- In a food processor, add the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt and cumin. Blend for 1 minute.
- Add half of the chickpeas and blend for 30 seconds, then add the other half along with the olives.
- While the food processor is continuing to blend on low, add one tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture is homogeneous and creamy. I used 4 tablespoons, you may want more or less.
- To create the spider web, fill a pastry sack with some Greek yogurt and draw the web like the photo.
- For the spider, cut an olive in half lengthwise. Cut the other half of the olive in four legs. Cut the second olive in half lengthwise and cut four legs. For the head, cut an olive in half widthwise.
- Adapted from Inspired Taste