* Ingredients

 - 1 cup dried chick peas
 - 1/4 cup liquid from chick peas
 - 6 cloves of [[Roasted Garlic]]
 - 2 sun dried tomatoes (dry; not stored in oil)
 - 2 tsp smoked paprika
 - 5 tbsp lemon juice (fresh if possible)
 - 2 tbsp olive oil (middle eastern if possible; the cultivars taste
   different!)
 - 4 tbsp tahini
 - 1/2 tsp kosher salt

* Directions

** Preparing the Beans

Just soak a cup of dried beans at least overnight in a couple of cups
of water. Drain them and throw them into a pot with a dash of salt and
enough water to just more than cover them (an extra half an inch or so
seems to be good). Bring everything to a boil uncovered, and then cut
the heat back to simmer for about an hour or an hour and a half (when
the skins split easily they have a good texture).

When you drain them save the liquid and use that when blending the
hummus.

** Tomatoes

Boil the sun dried tomatoes in one cup of water with a dash of salt
for ten minutes, drain, and cut into a few pieces to make it blend
more easily. It adds an interesting flavor if you use a bit of the
leftover water instead of chickpea water (I just do a 50/50 split
usually).

** And Now for the Actual Hummus

 1. Prepare the beans (or be lame and use canned beans)
 2. Throw everything together in a blender or food processor and blend
    until it is smooth
 3. Put whatever frilly garnish to make it look better on it if you must
 4. Take to a gathering of some sort
 5. Goodbye hummus

* Notes

One time I decided to make hummus for folks and alas! I forgot to soak
beans the night before. My strange friend came to the rescue with the
equivalent amount of home prepared white beans and it was a good
substitute (slightly different flavor, but the spices here really
dominate). I used the water from boiling the dried tomatoes as there
was no fresh chickpea water on hand and it was delightful.

I just use a blender to mix everything (use what you have eh). There's
no real need to use a fancy food processor if you don't have one;
anyone who thinks the texture is better from that is dumb and probably
just sucks at cooking the beans or is a pretentious jerk. Obviously if
you have a food processor you may as well use it because it's a bit
less annoying I'm told.

When using a blender you have to use a spoon to mix it manually
occasionally whenever an air pocket forms over the blades. At least in
my blender getting everything into the initial paste requires blending
for a second, mixing the solid beans into the bean paste below it, and
repeating until it is all paste. Then I just blend it on a fairly low
speed stopping and popping air pockets whenever they form until
everything is consistent, and then throwing the blender up to full
throttle for a little bit to blend out the chunks.