*This post was created in collaboration with Flavor Your Life and MomsMeet. All opinions are 100% my own.
I don't generally post fancy recipes on here because I am a "thrower together" on most occassions... but that said, I do cook a lot and have a healthy pantry packed with lots of good spices and flavors for the dishes that I do make. If someone were to ask me what one of my most used pantry items is, I would most definitely shout from the rooftops "OLIVE OIL"! Seriously, I use it for all sorts of dishes whether I am cooking or I want to add flavor to cold dishes and salads. MomsMeet and Flavor Your Life want you to feel the same way about European extra virgin olive oil.
For this post, I was gifted a 4-pack of delicious European Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Olitalia to use with vegetables, meat, pasta and fish... I was trying to think of a way that I could use this fancy EVOO in a recipe that I hadn't tried before. I would normally use olive oil on my roasted chickens, to sautee potatoes, brown up some garlic... you know what I'm saying. One thing I've never done, even though I absolutely love to eat it, is to make my own homemade hummus. Now that I have, I don't think I will ever go back to store bought. It's amazing. And I know the European Extra Virgin Olive Oil makes all the difference in the very simple recipe. You want to know how simple this recipe is? I can give it to you in my "throw together" way and it's super delicious... ready? Take one 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, 1/4 cup well-stirred tahini, 1 small minced garlic clove, 2 tablespoons european extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, Salt to taste, 2 to 3 tablespoons water, and blend it all in your food processor or blender. It's really that easy. I just hit the puree button on my blender, then was basically ready to serve. I drizzled some additional olive oil on top, added some paprika, pine nuts and thyme. Voila! I had some hummus. I must try Flavor Your Life's Red Bean Hummus recipe since I am now an official maker of hummus! The quality of the olive oil is important. You want the flavor to add to the dish and compliment the ingredients, not overpower it. It's why I add the cold pressed juice of olives (olive oil)... to my olive and feta mix as well. This tuna stuffed avacodo is next on my list of cold recipes to try!
"Olitalia believes all great cooking revolves around great oil. Olitalia is the #1 brand most used by chefs in Italy and is now available for home cooking in the US. Look for Olitalia at Eataly locations and be sure to follow on Instagram."
If you're not sure where to start, Flavor Your Life has great education on their site, you can learn how to cook with olive oil. It's easier than you think! Flavor Your Life has some awesome recipes to try and experiment with, which is all the fun of cooking, learning what works and what doesn't. I recommend taking a visit to the Flavor Your Life site to learn more about european extra virgin olive oil, how you can seamless introduce it into your cooking in new ways and how it will quickly become one of your pantry staples as well... so versatile and yummy!
