hummus
January 10, 2013 in Appetizers, Beans/Legumes, Middle Eastern
Clearly I must have gotten some type of bulk discount on carrots and chickpeas at the beginning of the year. Either that or my body is craving whatever essential nutrients these two foods bring to the table.
I know no one needs to make their own hummus. You can wander over to the grocery store and likely find an entire case of ready-made options in more flavors than you thought it possible for the average chickpea to be dressed up with. And these options, well, they’re fine. Does that make me sound too under-enthused? I want to love hummus, I really do, but every time I buy it at the grocery store I find that the texture is kind of weirdly grainy and overly thick, there’s some kind of acidic twang to it that’s kind of unplaceable, and I’m left with just a hint of a strange aftertaste. I usually find myself buying the tub of hummus, because yay! hummus! and after a few spoonfuls of it, it finds itself shoved to the back of the fridge where it is left to grow a furry little hat. It takes a while for that to happen (thanks preservatives!), but happen it does.
Here’s the solution to that.
The exception to the “purchased hummus is whack” rule is that every time I’ve ordered hummus from a Middle Eastern restaurant it has literally rocked my socks off. In a licking the bowl clean kind of way. No grandma, not in public. Only when we get it for take-out, from the privacy of my own couch, and then it occurs in more of a “licking the little plastic tub it came in clean” kind of fashion. Rest easy, I still have some manners. Anyway. So I knew it was possible for someone, somewhere out there to do hummus right. I turned to the Google.
Lo and behold. My favorite kebab take-out restaurant in the DC metro area, master of all things hummus, has had their recipe snatched from them by the Washington Post and posted on the internet for the world to see, and it’s been out there for years. I could have been making the most delicious hummus ever from the convenience of my own sweatpants all this time. Well, now you can too.
Adapted from Moby Dick’s via the Washington Post
Note: The day I set out to make this, this post popped up in my reader promising a technique to produce the silkiest, smoothest hummus there ever was. Only caveat? It comes with the task of peeling the chickpeas. “Madness!” ”Glutton for punishment!” Trust me, I hear you. Though as soon as my eyes scanned to the bottom of the aforementioned post a little light clicked on in my head and I just knew that this is how my favorite hummus achieves its gloriously silky texture. Of course I had to go for it. And if you plop yourself down in front of an episode of Downton Abby (welcome back my favorite Britons!) you’ll be finished well before the episode is out. The bonus is that you will be rewarded with hummus smoother than you ever thought possible… And if you’ve never made hummus before? Well do it this way the first time and then you’ll never have to know any different.
Other note: All of the below ingredients are adjustable to suit your own tastes. If you’re not sure what proportion of ingredients you like, start with a smaller amount and taste and adjust as you go. Eventually you’ll get to your hummus nirvana, this is mine.
Yields 4 cups
3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed if canned
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil, not extra virgin
1 teaspoon sea salt
If you have the patience for it, peel the chickpeas. Chickpeas don’t really want to keep their skins. A simple pinch between thumb and forefinger and they will shed their heavy outerwear and plop right into the bowl beneath them. If this is emergency hummus, and you need it as soon as possible, skip the skinning.
Add garlic to bowl of food processor fitted with blade attachment. Process until garlic is evenly chopped. Add chickpeas, and process until chickpeas form into clumps. Add the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and blend until puréed.
nutrition information:
serving size: 1/4 cup
calories: 145 • fat: 8.6 g • protein: 4.6 g • carb: 12.9 g • fiber: 3.6 g •
sugar: 0.4 g • sodium: 322 mg
Will definitely be trying this over the weekend. Complete with sweatpants and Downton Abbey. The Naan in your photo looks yummy – did you make that too?
Naan is on my list of foods to try, but I did not make this one. It is the garlic naan, from Trader Joe’s. That, combined with garlicky hummus, is probably enough to get you and Hannah sitting on opposite ends of the couch from each other. I suppose it also comes in a plain version for the faint of nostril.