Sun-Dried Tomato and Roasted Garlic Houmous with Roasted Garlic Flat Bread

My first houmous experience was far from pleasant. I must have been about 12, we were on a family holiday there were over 15 of us all sitting round in a circle under the starry night sky in middle of our patch of tents and caravans, bundled up in big jumpers and blankets, surrounded by candles on tables and stuck in the ground. I was sitting next to one of my aunts and she was sitting eating a pot of houmous with probably pitta bread, I don't really remember but for the story's sake let's just say it was, and somehow I ended up trying it. She scooped as much as she possibly could on to this lone tiny piece of pitta bread and long story short there was choking, coughing and a lot of laughing involved. It's safe to say I did not enjoy the houmous.

A few years ago my sister bought some caramelised onion houmous in a supermarket which I tried, I'd say I was a convert but it's pretty much the only houmous I've tried, so of course I figured I'd make my own. I wanted to make sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic houmous because I couldn't really go far wrong. Unfortunately my houmous is not as smooth as it could be because the food processor is on it's last leg, but it still tasted just as good and some people actually said they liked it not being really smooth . So I wouldn't worry about your poor old food processor, they might not work afterwards but you'll get some tasty houmous out of it.

For the houmous:
55g/ 1/4 cup of tahini
juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
25g/ 1/2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 bulb of roasted garlic, recipe here
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 can of chickpeas
2-3 tbsp water

Place the tahini and lemon juice in the food processor and blend for about a minute, scrape the sides and blend for another 30 seconds until creamy.
Chop up the sun dried tomatoes.
Add the olive oil, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, salt and dried basil to the whipped tahini and blend until evenly combined and the sun dried tomatoes are blended in.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add to the blender and process for 1-2 minutes until thick and quite smooth.
The houmous will probably still have lumps, add the water slowly while the food processor is on until the houmous becomes smooth.

For the flatbread:
125g/1 cup Strong white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
3g fast-action dried yeast/ 1/2 7g packet
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for oiling
180ml/ 3/4 cup cool water

For the roasted garlic butter:
1-2 tbsp butter/margarine
1/2 bulb of roasted garlic, recipe here
1 tsp dried parsley
Pinch of salt and pepper

Place the flour in a large bowl with the salt on one side and the yeast on the other.
Add the oil and 150ml/ 1/2 cup of water and mix with the fingers of one hand, add the rest of the water a little at a time until you have a smooth, soft dough and you've picked up the flour from the sides of the bowl.

Tip the dough onto an oiled work surface and knead until you have a smooth elastic ball of dough.
Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise for 1-2 hours until doubled in size.

Pre-heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas mark 7
Mix the butter, garlic, parsley and seasoning together in a bowl and set aside.
Lightly flour the work surface and roll/stretch and dough out until thin and place on a baking tray.
Spread the garlic butter on the dough so that it's evenly distributed.
Cook in the over for 8-12 minutes until lightly golden on top.

Cut up and serve with the houmous.