A combination of roasted garlic, balsamic caramelized onions, chickpeas, tahini, thyme and spices make this hummus a little bit of a show stopper. It is actually one thing I don’t make all that often is hummus, mainly because there is a Mexican café, Adriana`s that is just around the corner from our place and they make one of the best hummus`s I have ever had. Packed with adobe chipotle peppers, tahini, authentic spices and deliciously smooth it is my go to hummus. But there is something about homemade that not only makes you feel good about what you are putting in your body (although Adriana’s hummus is all natural and made in house, so just as good for the body) but gives you that satisfaction of making something and feeling useful even all at the same time, even if it is simple.

I love the caramelized onions on top of this hummus, it’s actually my favourite part. They are a great compliment and they give it an added texture and substance that sometimes you crave when eating hummus.

I actually woke Paul up for this hummus, I slathered a large dollop onto a piece of toasted baguette and pretty much shoved it into his sleepy mouth. I was just so excited, like "he had to try now excited", at the flavour combination. I do that a lot actually, he works nights so I do most of my creating, cooking and photo taking in the mornings while he is still asleep and when something is just so good he gets a little wake up call. It is not exactly the romantic breakfast in bed calm kind of call, it is more like me jumping around with glee, shoving things in my mouth, in his mouth, in Solomon`s mouth if I am feeling extra gleeish, kind of call. It is a lot of energy for someone just waking up, but it could be worse.

It is literally one month today that we will be landing in Amsterdam, one month! I still can`t believe we are going to Europe. Over the past weekend I booked all of our Airbnb`s, my favourite being the one I booked for us in Budapest, it just looks so dreamy, I can't wait to take and show you pictures.

I have been getting so many travel tips and places to go and see from everyone on Instagram (thank you all again so so much), it is actually all I can do and think about at the moment, researching each place I am told is a must see, checking out the restaurants and monuments I have been tagged in, dreaming of the pastries I will be eating...needless to say it is going to be one epic trip and I don`t think we could have picked prettier places.

Our official final picks are Amsterdam, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and maybe Munich, I say maybe because it will depend on how we are feeling towards the end and how much we want to keep exploring or if we want to just end our trip back in Amsterdam lazy like, re-exploring.

When we went to India a couple of years ago it was such a whirlwind trip, we saw so much and I am eternally grateful but literally we went almost from the top to the bottom of a very large country in a very short amount of time and it was quite exhausting and we didn't really get to enjoy each city and spot the way that we like too. This time when we were deciding where to go and how to do it we wanted to be able to hunker down in each city a little longer, to really get to know it, to make sure we were not rushed and to be honest to be able to keep up with the pace of travelling. It can get tiring!

But we do have a few days at the end of our trip where we have nothing booked so some wiggle room to play with, we`ll see where we will end up. Which is kinda exciting, a little spontaneity, wind beneath our wings style.

roasted garlic, thyme & caramelized onion hummus

hummus

1 cans of chickpeas

1 head of garlic

1/2 cup of olive oil

1/4 cup of tahini

4 tbsp of fresh thyme

1 heaping tsp of cumin

juice of one lemon

salt and pepper to taste

caramelized onions

2 white onions

2 tbsp of olive oil

2 tbsp of butter

2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

a pinch of salt and pepper

directions

Start by roasting your garlic. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the top end off of the garlic head and place in a small baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 50-60 minutes.

Next start to caramelize the onions, they take about 20-30 minutes. Roughly chop the onion into small slices and add the olive oil and butter to a pan over medium heat on the stove. Once the butter has melted and the oil is hot add the onions.

Cook the onion at medium heat for about 5 minutes, then turn the heat down to a medium to low heat, add the balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and cook down till deeply browned and the onions have reduced more than half in size. Set aside.

Once the garlic is done, take out of the oven and peel the roasted garlic pieces out of the shell. Add all of the hummus ingredients to a blender, including the roasted garlic and blend, adding water or more olive oil as needed to smooth the hummus out.

This recipe doubles really well so if you are making it for a party, double the above and you will have plenty. Pour the hummus into a serving dish and top with the caramelized onion, a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkling of sesame seeds and some extra fresh thyme. Serve with a toasted baguette, crackers, tortilla chips or veggies.