Creamy Homemade Hummus

This is my favorite hummus recipe. It's surprisingly simple and easy to make.

Hummus is really a type of middle-eastern religion, and depending on where you grew up that is where your allegiance will lie. It has to be the right taste, texture and consistency! Spreadable but not dry, just smooth enough with a good amount of tahini and simply flavored with lemon and salt.

Ever since I moved to Europe I could never find a store bought hummus that I liked. That's when we started the search for the recipe that tastes like home!

The only part that takes time is soaking the chickpeas (at least overnight) and cooking them for several hours. But don't be tempted to use pre-cooked or canned chickpeas - the taste is just not the same!

Having a great base recipe means that you can eat it with a variety of different foods, and when the humus is made there are so many different ways to dress it up, by mixing in things like crushed garlic, fried pine seeds, etc (I'll add some variations in the end).

300 gr of dried chickpeas (about 2 cups) - The dry kind is better than any pre-cooked or canned variety!

2 tsp. baking soda

1-2 tsp. salt

180gr of tahini

juice from 1 lemon

For decoration:

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp Paprika powder

Fresh parsley

This is as simple as it sounds. Place the chickpeas in a large bowl and add lots of water, leave for at least 12 hours. Make sure the bowl is large enough because the chickpeas will soak the water overnight. 2 cups of dry chickpeas will turn into about 4 cups after soaking.

Wash the chickpeas and place in a pot with plenty of water. Add 2 tsp of baking soda. On a high flame heat the water to a boil and then reduce to a medium flame keeping it on a low boil.

Ladle out the white foam/froth that starts rising to the top. Over the next 2-3 hours the chickpeas will soften and the peels will start come off. Ladle out the peels as it cooks and add water if it gets too low.

The cooking is finished when you can easily smash a chickpea with the side of a fork or spoon.

Drain the chickpeas and keep 1glass of the water they were cooked in (it should be very thick almost gelatinous).

Cool both for about 30min to an hour.

Put aside 1/2 cup of cooked chickpeas.

In a blender, or with a hand blender (like I have), crush the chickpeas and 1/2 cup of the cooking water

Blend in 1 tsp of salt, and 1/2 the lemon juice.

Blend until you get a smooth paste.

Add the Tahini (I used whole sesame tahini which is much darker, but the light tahini works just as well.)

Blend to a smooth paste again.

At this point its time to taste and adjust the salt and lemon juice.

Basic Hummus plate:

Smooth the hummus into a plate with the back of a spoon, creating a dent in the middle.

Add olive oil, the cooked chickpeas, some parsley leaves and paprika powder.

Variations:

• Add 2 cloves of garlic and 1 tsp cumin powder to the blender.
• Pan fry pine seeds in a little bit of oil and add to the finished hummus.
• Add a lot of spiciness with Zhug (You can find the recipe for Zhug here)
• For a more modern take - blend in 1/2 an avocado and a tbsp of yogurt (you might need to adjust the amount of tahini)