Monday, June 1, 2009

Make It Yourself: Hummus.

It's official: I'm never buying hummus again. Not since I've made it at home and discovered how easy it is to do, and how delicious it tastes. And as an additional bonus, I don't have to deal with those small, plastic containers that hummus comes in from the store.

Below is the basic recipe.

Basic Hummus

2 cups canned garbanzo beans (a.k.a. chick peas), drained
1/3 cup tahini, well stirred
1 ounce fresh lemon juice (start there; add more in small increments if you feel it is necessary)
2-3 cloves garlic
Generous pinch of salt
1 Tbs. olive oil
1/4 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. red pepper flake

Preparation
Measure 2 cups of garbanzo beans. Reserve the liquid from the can. Rinse the beans under cold water.

Peel the garlic cloves. Using a motar and pestle, put a few pinches of salt into the bottom of the motar, add the garlic, and mash together.

Place rinsed beans, tahini, salt/garlic mash, lemon juice, olive oil, cumin and red pepper flake into the bowl of a food processor. Puree until smooth, stopping to scrape the walls of the processor bowl as needed.

At this point, the mixture may be too thick. Adjust it to suit your taste by adding bean liquid, or water, by the scant tablespoon until the hummus is of the right consistency. Taste, and adjust salt and seasonings as necessary.

Refrigerate. Allow several hours for the flavors to blend together.

Enjoy on pita bread, sesame crackers, and veggies!





2 comments:

  1. OK, this is certainly one of the closest things to hummus I found in the blogsphere so far. Only you should try using dried chickpeas. check my recipe at hummus101.com. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I will try dried chickpeas sometime. Thanks for your comment!

    ReplyDelete