Hummus Recipe: Homemade Chickpea and Tahini Dip

Step-by-step recipe

1. Homemade hummus is easy to make. The important thing is to prepare the chickpeas for cooking in advance. Chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans) are a legume very widely grown in the East. At home we often cook chickpea soup, which is tasty and filling.
   
2. Before boiling, rinse the chickpeas to remove dust and soak them in water at room temperature overnight. The minimum soaking time is 6 hours, otherwise the chickpeas will be hard to cook. Use at least 1 l of water per cup of chickpeas. They should soak up the water well. By the way, you will often read advice to add baking soda to the water. However hard you try, you will still taste the soda. So it is better to simply soak the chickpeas really well and not spoil the dish with soda.
   
3. Pour 1 l of cold water into a large pot and add the soaked chickpeas. Put the pot on the heat and bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat to the minimum at which the water still shows signs of simmering, and cook the chickpeas for about 2 hours. If possible, it is better not to cover the pot with a lid.
4. Important: do not salt the cooking water, or the chickpeas will be hard to soften. Salt at the very end of cooking. Or do not salt at all and add the salt together with the other spices to the hummus itself.
   
5. If you want the smoothest possible chickpea puree, peel the skins off while cooking. About an hour after the water starts boiling, drain the chickpeas in a colander and rinse them with cold water. Then rub them between your palms with a little pressure until the skins come off. Rinse the peeled chickpeas and cook them in fresh water until fully done. Be careful not to overcook them, or you will end up with something like pea soup.
   
6. As mentioned, the dish needs tahini, a sesame paste. If it is hard to find, sesame seeds are sold in any store and are inexpensive. They are the seeds sprinkled on bread or on Eastern flatbread such as kesra.
   
7. Sesame paste is simply sesame seeds ground to a puree, in its basic form with no other ingredients. You can lightly toast the sesame in a dry frying pan and grind it in a mortar or coffee grinder to a paste. To keep the paste from clumping, add 1 tbsp of cooled boiled water. You get a thick paste with a pleasant aroma and an exotic taste. To avoid whole seeds, press the paste through a fine tea strainer.
   
8. Drain the cooked chickpeas in a colander and let the liquid run off, but save it for thinning the puree. Put the chickpeas in a bowl, cover with an upturned plate and let cool. Transfer the chickpeas to a blender and blend to a smooth puree.
9. Add 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice to the puree, along with a peeled garlic clove crushed with a pinch of salt and cumin. Mix the puree, then add 1 tbsp of olive oil and all the tahini sesame paste. Once everything is mixed, the hummus is ready. The consistency should be like ordinary mashed potatoes, as everyone knows them. If it turns out too thick, add a little of the liquid left over from cooking the chickpeas, and some olive oil.
   
10. The hummus you get is a base for many variations of the appetizer. With different additions you can get completely different and very tasty versions of this wonderful dish.
    
11. The dish goes well with almost any fresh herbs, garlic and olive oil. It is very good sprinkled with a pinch of hot pepper or with a finely chopped fresh chili pod. Ground caraway and cumin make excellent seasonings.
    
12. To serve as an appetizer, spread the finished puree over a plate, forming a sort of rim around the edge. Sprinkle with coarsely ground dried hot pepper or fresh chili. You can add roasted sweet pepper, olives and a few capers, gherkins, pickled garlic, and sprinkle with finely chopped dill and parsley. If you like, and it is delicious, add cubes of brynza or feta. Put the plates in the cold to chill.
    
13. Serve hummus as an appetizer or as part of a meze spread. It makes an elegant side dish for fried chicken or charcoal-grilled lula kebabs. And simply spread on fresh bread or wrapped in lavash, chickpea puree is a great appetizer.