Hummus

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.

unknownlamer: you cannot both me in the state of sin and grace simultaneously Tony: sure you can, sex while figure skating is pretty sinfully graceful

Last Modified: January 26, 2009