Hot and sour - very mild version

When we were in India, high up in the Himalaya in Himachal Pradesh, we ate a hot and sour soup that I have tried to emulate ever since. Especially with chicken, my wife loves it. My kids, I know from experience, love sour soup, but less so, hot food. Hence I tend to make milder versions of my hot recipes these days. Here is the hot and sour soup with chicken and less hot and sour.

1 onion
1 red paprika (bell pepper)
1 green paprika
1 carrot (grated)
1 tea spoon ginger
juice of 1 lemon
2 table spoons olive oil
1 tea spoon sweet paprika
2 tea spoons ground caraway
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 table spoon ground fenegreek
2 tea spoons soy sauce
10 drum sticks
1 tea spoon rock salt

Heat the oil with the sweet paprika, caraway and cumin. Simmer in it the onion (finely cut) and the grated carrot. Grate the ginger and finely cut the paprikas and add them to the soup. Heat well and add the drumsticks. Keep stirring; the vegetables and spices should not scorch. When the meat turns white, add garlic, salt, soy sauce, lemon juice and fenegreek and cover. After a couple of minutes add 1.5 liter of boiling water. Turn the fire low and let the soup boil slowly for 15 minutes. If you like, you can take out the chicken and mash the vegetables further with a hand blender.

Couscous with Chicken

Typically in the winter I make huge dishes of couscous we all love. Leftovers are intended; we store them in single servings in the freezer, for later use. It is very handy and near indispensable to have ready to go meals in the fridge when you have a family.

12 drumsticks; skin removed (Or any amount of chicken legs, with or without the thigh)
3 table spoons of olive oil
1 tea spoon cumin
1 tea spoon sweet paprika
2 tea spoons turmeric
1 tea spoon coriander (ground)
a handful of coriander (leaves)
2 cloves garlic
salt
5 carrots
5 stems of celery
green pepper
2 courgettes
500 grams chickpeas (readily boiled or from a can)
(Optional to add: pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower)
500 grams couscous (3 minute microwavable)
0.5 liter boiling water

Slowly heat two table spoons of oil and add cumin, sweet paprika and one tea spoon of turmeric. When the oil is sufficiently hot, throw in the pieces of chicken, one by one, carefully turning them around in order to have them fried lightly in the oil and spices. If necesary to make some room, take out some of the chicken (not all) and add the vegetables. Stir fry until everythign is sufficiently warm. Add salt, garlic and chickpeas. Boil the water and add that too. (In case you took out some of the chicken put the pieces on top) Allow to boil for 10-20 minutes. Put the couscous in a bowl, add one teas spoon of turmeric and one table spoon of oil; stir well with a fork. Take 0.5 liter of broth from the stew and pour it on the couscous. Stir with the fork in order to evenly immerse the couscous in the soup. Put the bowl for 3 minutes in the microwave and high power. After three minutes, allow the couscous to stand for 5 minutes. Stir the couscous with the fork once more.
Check on the stew, add salt to taste. Serve on top of the couscous.

Main course with rice, minced meat and burnt eggplant

Tonight our sabbath meal consisted of rice, minced meat in a tomato sauce and eggplant burnt in the oven. Four to eight servings.

1) Eggplant
Cut the eggplant in two halves. Cover them with tin foil and burn them in the oven for at least 60 minutes at a temperature of 275 degrees.

2) Rice
1 table spoon olive oil
1 big onion
salt
white wine
1 clove of garlic
1 cup of brown rice

Cut the onion and stir fry it for 3 minutes in the oil at medium heat. Add some salt, the rice and keep stirring. Add half a glass of white wine and stir some more. Add two cups of water, cover and boil. When the rice boils add a whole clove of garlic. When the rice is done (after 20 to 30 minutes) stir the rice with a fork. The garlic will have gone soft and you can take it out or - what I prefer - mix it with the whole bowl of rice by stirring.

3) Minced meat in tomato sauce
500 gram minced meat
1 table spoon olive oil
2 tea spoons ground caraway
1 tea spoon ground cardamom
2 handful of fresh basil leaves
1 tea spoon fresh thyme
3 tea spoons fresh sage
4 zucchinis
2 green paprikas
1 dry red hot pepper
2 bay leaves
10 cloves of garlic
3 packages of tomato paste
salt
black pepper

Mix the meat with a pinch of salt, the caraway and the cardamom. Fry it in the pan with the oil. Add the red pepper and the bay leaves. Stir. Cut and add the zucchini and the paprika. Cut 5 cloves of garlic into fine slices and add to the meat. Then squeeze the other 5 and add also. When the zucchini is done, roughly cut the fresh leaves and add. Simmer for 5 minutes and add the tomato paste. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Take the eggplant out of the oven. Cut the halves in two quarts and serve on a plate next to the rice and the sauce.

Paprika and pumpkin soup

Paprikas (bell peppers of whatever color) are a fine ingredient to many meals. Their peal, however is a bit bitter, and therefore not always what you want in your melange of tastes. The way to peal paprikas something I learned only recently and when used, have a wonderful taste effect, very different from paprika with the skin still on. In order to bring the paprikas into a state where the skin can be pealed off, they need to be burnt in an oven. When the paprika turns black, take it out, put it in a plastic bag and let it cool. Make sure you turn the paprika in the oven to scorch it on all sides. If the heat was not evenly distributed, on the cooler side the paprika is much harder to peal. For the recipe below one must start with burning the paprikas for that takes around one hour, depending on the size, color and oven-heat.

1.5 table spoon olive oil
2 tea spoons turmeric
1 tea spoon ground cardamom
1.5 tea spoon ground coriander
300-500 gram pumpkin cut in small cubes
2 tea spoons rock salt
6 stems of chives
0.5 tea spoon ground ginger
2 bay leaves
6 cloves of garlic, sliced
1.5 liter boiling water
3 pealed green paprikas
1 tea spoon ground cumin
3 table spoons lemon juice

Put a high pan on low heat and pour in one table spoon of olive oil and add one tea spoon of turmeric, half a tea spoon of cardamom and half a tea spoon of ground coriander and stir. When the oil takes on the color of the spices, add the pumpkin and turn up the heat and stir continuously. Add half a tea spoon of salt. Cut the chives in small rings, both the whites and the greens and add to the pan - keep on stirring for five minutes. Add another half a tea spoon of salt, half a tea spoon of turmeric, half a tea spoon of ground ginger and the bay leaves. Stir for five more minutes and simultaneously bring the water to the boil. Throw in the garlic the rest of the oil and the boiling water. Peal the paprikas and cut them in small pieces and add to the soup. Keep simmering for one hour, tasting the soup from time to time. Add salt, cumin, coriander and turmeric as needed. After one hour add the lemon juice.

Fish with couscous

800 gram codfish - מרלוזה
350 gram couscous (medium size)
olive oil
3 bay leaves
1 red hot pepper
1 green hot pepper
5 stems of celery
5 carrots
3 green paprikas
1 red bell pepper
2 tea spoons sweet paprika
1 tea spoon ground coriander
1 tea spoon ground caraway
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1/2 tea spoon turmeric
4 cloves garlic
1 tea spoon mustard
1 tea spoon squeezed ginger
2 hands of cilantro leaves
2 servings tomato paste
60 ml cream (15%)
1/2 l water
2 glasses white wine

Heat the oil with salt, bay leaves and whole red hot pepper. Let this scorch a bit then add finely cut celery and carrot. Add sweet paprika. Stir. Add the fish and one glass of wine. Add garlic, ginger, spices (but NOT the turmeric), salt, paprikas, mustard and stir. Close the lid, turn to medium heat. Boil 1/2 liter of water then add together with another glass of wine. After 10 minutes, use a ladle to take out 1/2 liter of the 'soup'.

Add the couscous to a glass bowl. Add one spoon of oil and the turmeric, mix by stirring with a fork. Add the soup and stir again. Put in microwave at high power for 3 minutes. (Check the instructions that come with your couscous, I am not entirely sure EVERY couscous can be made like this)

Add tomato paste to the stew, simmer without the lid on and then take it off the fire and add cream.

Chicken pesto with moong dal rice

Here I present two recipes. One for the rice and one for the chicken. Actually it is three. One for the rice, one for the chicken and one for the pesto.

Rice:
1 cup of brown rice
Half a cup of mash (moong dal)
1 large onion
salt
water
olive oil

Have the mash soak in water for at least an hour before use. Put one spoon of olive oil in the rice pan. Heat it quickly and stir fry the finely cut onion in it. Add salt and the mash and stir fry. Add the rice and stir. Add water (optional: add a glass of white wine) and cook for at least 30 minutes. The mash must be soft and ready to eat -- it usually takes a tad longer than the brown rice.

Pesto:
150 gram of fresh basil
1 green hot pepper
10 cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt

Add the basil, the garlic, one spoon of oil, a tea spoon of salt and the pepper to a blender and blend it into a pesto.

Chicken:
500 gram of boneless chicken (cut in cubes)
2 courgettes
7 chives
1 dry red hot pepper
3 bay leaves
2 tea spoons of fine ground black pepper
2 spoons olive oil
salt
5 celery stalks
60 ml cream (15% fat)

Put one spoon of oil in a pan, heat it quickly with the red pepper (whole) and bay leaves and one tea spoon of ground pepper. After one minute add the chicken and stir fry. While adding the rest of the black pepper and salt. Add celery and chives; stir fry. Add courgette. When this whole is well done, add the pesto. Let it cook for a while and turn off heat. Add cream. Allow standing time.

Chicken and vegetables (2)

You know the challenge? There is very little stock in the fridge, it is late and suddenly you must cook a meal as fast as you can with whatever you have. An additional challenge I got: the meal is for a family whom I know quite well, but I have no idea about their eating habits.

So, what did I have? Frozen chicken and minced meat, frozen vegetables, 1 onion, 5 carrots, 4 paprikas, 1 eggplant, lots of potatoes, garlic and tomatoes and regular spices and dried goods. Not everybody likes eggplant, so that is out. Go easy on the garlic and the spices of course. I decided to go for the cookie bag. Half an hour of preparations and one hour in the oven.

4 chicken legs (separated drum sticks and thighs; skin removed)
2 table spoons soy sauce
1 tea spoon squeezed ginger
2 table spoons tomato paste (1 serving)
2 tea spoons sweet paprika
1 tea spoon turmeric
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 onion
5 cloves garlic (squeezed)
5 potatoes
5 carrots
200 grams thin green beans (defrosted / slightly cooked)
2 green paprikas
1 large cookie bag

Defrost frozen chicken in the microwave (20 minutes). Rinse frozen green beans and allow them to stand for 20 minutes (simultaneous) in a sieve. Peel and cut carrots and potatoes (10 minutes, simultaneous to defrosting). Clean and cut onion, ginger, paprikas and garlic (10 minutes, after cutting vegetables, simultaneous to defrosting). Preheat oven at 190 degrees.
Fill cookie bag with soy sauce, spices, tomato paste. Squeeze garlic and ginger and add to the bag; mix well, by closing and shaking the bag. Add chicken, potatoes, carrots and paprika; mix well, by closing and shaking the bag. Shake the beans in order to remove as much water as possible then add to the bag and shake well.
Seal bag, make 4-8 holes with a tooth pick and place in the oven. Ready after 50-60 minutes.

Sorry no picture. The photograph is of the previous cookie bag meal I posted.

Another one of Anne's makloobas

If I am not mistaken ma'aluba or maqluba is Arabic for upside down. The idea is to cook the rice, the spices and the vegetables with the pieces of meat, poultry or fish on top in one big pot and when it is ready, you serve this on a broad dish. How to pass the stew onto the dish? Well, you put the dish, facing down, on top of the pan and turn the whole thing upside down. Thus the dish will be put on the table with the meat buried under a pile of rice and vegetables.

I don't mess around with this way of serving, but I do like to cook all of these types of ingredients in one pan, for it gives a very tasty stew. I like to vary with all types of ingredients. A large variety of vegetables and spices are at my disposal and I choose regarding the season. In stead of rice, or together with rice one can add lentils or other legumes, one can take couscous, qinoa and so on. Mostly I cook with chicken, but all sorts of meat, poultry and fish are fit for the stew. Here is how I made my maklooba today:

5 drum sticks with the skin removed
1 table spoon of olive oil
3 tea spoons turmeric
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 tea spoon ground coriander
half a tea spoon cinnamon
8 stems of blanched celery
half a teaspoon squeezed ginger
5 cloves of garlic
two hands of fresh parsley
1 cup of rice
1 table spoon qinoa
half a cup of red lentils
2 courgettes
salt

Put in the oil, the cumin and one teaspoon of turmeric on low heat. Stir fry until the oil gets the color of the spices and then add the celery. Stir. Add Chicken with 1 tea spoon turmeric and ginger. Stir. Add rice and garlic and salt. Stir. Add, courgette, qinoa and lentils. Stir. Add three cups of hot water, turmeric, coriander and cinnamon and parsley. Cook until the rice is ready. Add a bit of hot water if the stew turns too dry and begins to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Itamar ate the stew in a pita.

Bell pepper soup with sour cream

1 table spoon olive oil
1 drip sesame oil
20 grams butter
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
cayenne pepper
half a teaspoon turmeric
teaspoon caraway
2 teaspoons allspice
black pepper
1 big onion
half a cup black lentils
6 cloves of garlic
30 cl beer
salt
two table spoons fresh thyme
6 bell peppers
1 green paprika
1 green pepper
1.5 liter of hot water

Put the red and the green paprika, together with the green pepper in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius until the skin begins to turn black. Put the paprikas in a plastic bag and let them cool down.

Pour the oil in a pan over low heat. Add the butter and the spices apart from the thyme. Let the oil and butter take on the color and smell of the spices. Cut the onion very fine and stir fry in the colored oil. Add one clove of garlic sliced. When the onion becomes shiny, add the lentils. Stir the lentils over medium heat. Add one cup of beer. Add salt and thyme (remove the stems, add only the leaves).

When sufficiently cooled down, take the paprikas from the bag; the skin can easily be peeled off. Remove also the seeds. Cut in small pieces and add to the soup. Add the rest of the beer and let boil for at least half an hour. Allow standing time. Serve with sour cream.

Eggplant salad

1 small or half a big eggplant
pepper
1 clove of garlic, squeezed
table spoon tahin
allspice
salt
table spoon of lemon juice

Take the eggplant cut it lengthwise in half. Cover the halves with tinfoil and burn them at 275 degrees for about an hour. Take the eggplant out of the oven and let it cool down. When it is sufficiently cool you can scoop the inside out of the peel. Mash the inside a bit more with a fork and add pepper and garlic and mix well.

Now a word about the tahin paste. My recipe assumes you are using the nearly liquid paste that is common in Israel. I recall from Holland, the paste comes in a dry very thick form. I assume that the thick variety, must be administered in a smaller dose -- try one tea spoon. For the liquid kind take one table spoon. Be careful not to take too much. If you are uncertain, take a small portion, mix, and taste. If it is a bit bitter and still liquid, that is fine, the lemon will neutralize the bitterness. You won't want it to get too thick though.

After mixing with the tahin and adding the allspice and salt, add one tea spoon of lemon juice (this is about one quarter of a squeezed lemon). Taste the salad. Here it should be just right. You can add more lemon if too thick and more tahin, if too watery. Be careful, neither the lemon nor the tahin should dominate over the taste of the eggplant.

Tomato-Onion soup

I love eating soup, I love cooking soup. During the warm season I prefer lighter soups -- potages, so to say. The lightest version of soups are sour soups, which I usually make with lemon juice, or, the not-so-sour versions, white wine. To my surprise, the kids love eating my sour soups. They just yum it up, albeit with the indispensable tiny croûtons that are so typically Israeli: שקדי מרק (photo left).

1 table spoon olive oil
half a tea spoon ground cumin
half a tea spoon turmeric
1 tea spoon sweet paprika
4 onions finely cut
3 tea spoons rock salt
branch of tomatoes
4 tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic sliced
juice of 1 lemon
1.5 liter water

Pour in the oil and spices at low heat. Simmer and stir for a couple of minutes and add the cut onions. stir fry on medium heat for 5-10 minutes. When onions are shiny and tainted by the spices, add 1 tea spoon of salt, and tomato branch. simmer for another 5 minutes. Cut the tomatoes in quarters and add while stirring. Add boiling water, keep stirring. Add the garlic and boil for some 10 minutes. Taste the soup and add salt as needed. Boil for 10 minutes, add lemon juice. Allow standing time, taste and add salt if needed.

The kids do not like ground black pepper in this soup, but you can add to your taste during standing time or while serving.

My low fat recipes are no diet

I felt the need to make a general explanation for the fact I publish low fat recipes.
My recipes are not made for losing weight. If you want to and need to lose weight, you will have to find a dietician to help you design a diet that fits your physical make up and that will help you lose weight in a responsible way. Or if you do not want to go that road, you might want to try diets that are laid out in various dietary programs or books (for what they are worth; I am convinced there are a lot of scams and plain ineffective methods out there) or even enter a support group of the likes of Weight Watchers or OA. Whatever the road to take, and what ever the outcome, to reach the right weight is one thing, stay there is another.
My low fat recipes are our way of staying at the right weight. When I look back at the recipes I followed when I learned cooking, there was no intention of keeping the calories down. The amounts of calorie rich ingredients were not kept at a reasonable rate (sugars, fats, carbo-hydrates) and maybe made for very delicious meals, but not very healthy ones. The current quest is to make (or remake) recipes and crank down the calories. I try not to use sugars, but if I have to, use no more than one tea spoon per four servings and preferably replace with more natural sweeteners such as honey (which by the way can be obtained in a light, low calorie version) or raisins and other fruit. I keep oil, butter or cream at a rate of one table spoon per four servings. Carbo-hydrates (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes etc) are fine with me, I'll just eat no more than one serving.
All of this is fine, but must go with two other rules for eating, otherwise it won't work. The first rule is to never go hungry. When you are starving you are inclined to indulge in eating or attack some high calorie food. When having eaten in time it is much easier to stay away from the bad foods.
The second rule is just as important and easier to abide by if you stay true to the first one: never over-eat. It amazes me now when I look back and understand how I had made myself used, over the years, to stuff myself up. I had to unlearn this and gradually get used to eating smaller portions. It is very important to understand that this needs getting used to, otherwise eating binges are on the lure again. But one should eat just enough to not go hungry until the next meal.
And thus, with a normal three meals a day, eating as much as I want (without stuffing), I can stay away from the calories and remain at a normal weight.

Chicken and vegetables

For our Sabbath meal I used the most amazing means to make a stew in an easy, clean and low fat way: the cookie bag. This is a plastic bag that is made to sustain the high heat of an oven (up to 200 degrees centigrade) and this allows for cooking with almost no fat at all and still come up with a very tasty meal. I am still in the process of perfecting my recipes for the cookie bag, but for completeness sake, I give the one for Friday evening below. First I want to explain more generally the use of the cookie bag, though.
Nothing sticks to the bag and as a consequence one can make a mix of all the desired ingredients of the stew and not add any more fat ingredients than is needed for taste. This allows for making a dish without oil or butter or such altogether. Any combination of vegetables with fish, fowl or meat can deliver a very tasty stew. Vegetables with a strong taste of their own such as garlic, ginger, fennel, carrot, paprika for example are fantastic contributors to the stew.

For one large cookie bag:
1 kilo cut chicken (remove skin for less fat)
400 gram potatoes
400 gram carrot
400 gram cauliflower
red paprika
small green pepper
6 cloves garlic squeezed
tea spoon of squeezed ginger
table spoon soy sauce
table spoon sweet chili sauce

Throw all the ingredients into a large cookie bag. Mix well. Close the cookie bag with delivered clip and punch some 4-8 tiny holes in the bag with a tooth pick. Put the bag in the oven at 180-200 degrees for one hour. Let the holes in the bag face upwards in order to prevent leaking, but allow steam to be let out and not cause the bag to explode.

Sweet and spicey soup with zucchini

I never know what to call the vegetable. Is it zucchini? Squash? Courgette? Whatever it 's named, that's what it is and for this recipe I used the dark skinned type. There is also yellow skinned and light green. There is also a difference in shape. I took the elongated version, not the ball-shaped or the ones that look like small pumpkins. All in all, the difference in taste is not so huge. I guess you can use them all, but for the sake of accuracy: dark green, elongated zucchini is what I used.
Another ingredient that needs some discussion are the spices. I use ground spices, mostly, as they produce a more evenly distributed and stronger taste. If you ground yourself, be aware that finer grounding gives stronger taste immersion, especially when fresh. Still, you have to be careful and know your stuff. A spice like cinnamon can be different in strength from one ground packet to the next.
Another ingredient where the strength can differ enormously is sesame oil. I have the dark, concentrated stuff that is very strong. I have no experience with the lighter version. I only know from an Indian woman I know, who is used to the light version, that in case she can only obtain the dark one, she mixes it with regular oil in order to get something near to what she is used to. In short, the difference is enormous.

40 gram butter
half a teaspoon ground cloves
half a teaspoon ground cinnamon
half a teaspoon ground galanga (laos)
4 drips of dark sesame oil
green pepper
6 small zucchinis
2 large onions
salt
1 liter water
1.5 table spoon soy sauce
4 bay leaves
1 table spoon of (light) honey
3 cloves of garlic (squeezed)
0.5 liter skimmed milk

Stir fry in the butter and sesame oil, first the cinnamon, cloves and galanga and then, after a few minutes, when you smell the spices, add the finely cut zucchini and onion. Stir fry and slowly build up heat, until the onions and zucchini are shiny. Add salt and bay leaves, stir and slowly turn down the heat. On low heat add soy sauce and water after which you turn on the heat again. When the soup is boiling, add the garlic. Boil some more and then add the honey, turn heat down and let the soup simmer. Taste from time to time; add salt, honey or soy sauce (or even pepper) according to your preference and the taste development. Take the soup off the fire and add milk. Allow to stand for at least 30 minutes.

A word on calories. I try to cook on a low fat basis. The interesting discovery is that whatever recipes I have learned or developed over the years, when I redo them, I find that the amounts of oil, butter, cream, honey and so on can be significantly reduced. The rule of thumb is that one should not have more that one table spoon of oil/butter/cream etc per 4 servings. For stir frying, for sauces, for stews, it surely makes it more difficult to retain the taste as should, but it can be done.
In addition, wherever possible I use low-fat ingredients such as light honey and skimmed milk in this recipe.

Sour soup with fennel and garlic

Five pieces of fennel,
half a garlic (7-10 cloves),
tea spoon turmeric,
tea spoon ground cumin,
pepper,
two lemons,
a table spoon and a half of olive oil,
salt.

Clean the fennels (keep the green leafage aside) and cut to fine pieces. Put one table spoon of olive oil in the pan on low heat and add the turmeric and the cumin. Stir fry for two minutes and add the fennel. Stir fry for ten minutes, while gradually increasing heat (make sure neither the spices nor the fennel gets burned). Add ample salt and boiling water (3 to 4 liters). Then add the garlic. Cook for 15 minutes and then add the juice of two lemons. Cook on low heat for another two minutes, add the leafage of the fennel and allow standing time. Add salt and pepper for taste.

Chumus

It is no small feat to get your chumus salad right. However, these days I make new portions for our household every week and I no longer am intimidated by the challenge. I have established a stable quality that has found wide praise and I have found the secret ingredient: ... naah, that would be telling. :)

I have browsed through many a cookbook, I have interviewed orientals in the neighborhood, who wouldn't want to be found dead with a bought chumus salad in their house, I have searched the internet and nobody mentions the ingredient I have discovered -- and I find it indispensable. If you want to get your salad right, nice and creamy, nothing that sits like concrete in the stomach, you are going to need it. All right, I am going to divulge it anyway, so let's go and mention it here and now: I get my salad right with ... water. Yes, water, as simple as all that. I suppose tap water will do, but I use bottled water, for what it is worth.
The problem is not with the chumus, that is the chickpeas (Nederlands: Kikkererwten), the problem is with the tchina, that is the tahin, the paste of sesame seeds. If you make chumus the way sephardi grandma's or Arab food stall owners tell you to do it, the tchina makes the salad lump like heavy dough. What, if you ask, makes the salad creamy, is either not answered or if it is, you will use too much of the additive: lemon juice or olive oil or the water in which the chickpeas were cooked (or held in case you use a can). Once it was even suggested you need to separate the peas from their skins. For one that was an awful lot of work, and second: it didn't make any difference.
You need lemon juice in chumus to lighten up the taste, but use too much and the lemon gets too dominant and the salad is too sour. Olive oil, I do not use at all. I may add it to a serving, but on the whole I try to keep the calories down in what I cook. Besides, oil doesn't make for creamy salad, it makes for oily salad, which is a different taste and also oily is heavier in the stomach -- what we wanted to prevent anyway.
Now, the chickpea brew... Here is what brought me to water. You see, the water from the can is salted, not so tasty, ripe with additives you may not like in home-cooking and ... Hey, I do not use canned peas anyway. I buy them dry, I soak them for half a day and then cook. What happens during cooking, is, apparently, some kind of starch gets separated from the peas into the water. If you allow the brew to stand and cool down you will see the starch thickening. Needless to say this is also heavy on the stomach. In addition, I have learned to cook the peas with baking powder (sodium bicarbonate) and I wouldn't want that in my food.
Hence, I tried my hand with water and it worked -- perfectly. So here goes. My recipe for around 500 grams of chumus salad.

250 grams dry chickpeas
200 grams tchina טחינה גולמית=
1 tea spoon salt
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 clove of garlic
juice of 1 lemon
2 tea spoons sodium bicarbonate
water

Soak the peas at least 8 hours in water and one tea spoon sodium bicarbonate. Skim the foam that is separated from the peas. Note that while soaking, the peas make popping sounds. Don't go looking for a leaking tap, or a scurrying insect, the noise comes from the peas.
After soaking, cook the peas with lots of water and one teas spoon of sodium bicarbonate for circa 30 minutes. Right from the beginning there will be a lot of foam you'll need to skim away. Next, stir while cooking and observe how some pea skins come floating about. They are tasteless; if you have the patience, remove as many as you can. When the peas get the right taste and smell take them off the fire and throw them in a sieve and rinse with cold water.
Put the peas in a blender with salt, garlic and cumin. Make an initial blend. Add the tchina and blend again. The whole will develop into a thick dough. Start adding water and blend till you approach the correct texture. Then add the lemon juice. Blend again and taste. Maybe you will want to add just a tad more water and then you are done.