Hummus

By Saiba Haque

Today I tested out making hummus at home that would yield the smoothest. The simple middle-eastern dip has been gentrified to death, with grainy, dry supermarket counterparts consisting of eccentricities such as chocolate (gasps). Nevertheless, it remains to be a quintessential dish for many and I (along with many of my peers) are here to tell you, you don’t need to settle for mediocre hummus.

If you intend to make this recipe the easy way, and decide that you don’t want to boil the chickpeas in salted water with baking powder, you can skip some optional ingredients. However, I would highly recommend this small extra step of boiling the chickpeas for 5 minutes which would soften the fibres of the legume and yield a very smooth end-result.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of chickpeas (drained)

• 5 tbsp olive oil

• 2 tbsp tahini

• 2-3 tsp salt

• 4-5 cloves of garlic

• Juice of half a lemon

• 5-6 cubes of ice

Optional:
Extra water & salt with 2 tsp baking powder
1-2tsp of toasted cumin powder
Extra tbsp each of tahini and olive oil to serve/drizzle

After boiling the chickpeas, please do reserve the water used to boil the chickpeas, this can be used to further smoothen out the hummus when blending. Add the chickpeas to the blender along with the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, tahini and garlic. I prefer a strong garlic flavour, but feel free to use lesser. This is also the point where you can add some cumin powder. Add in some ice cubes and two to three tbsp of chickpea water and blend everything together in a blender or food processor for about 2 mins or until you have a very smooth hummus. If your blender is struggling, add a tablespoon of water

Serve the smooth dip however you like. I personally like mine to look like a circular well with a dent in the middle to add some tahini to, and then drizzle some olive oil on top for good measure. The possibilities for garnish are endless with options varying from, paprika, toasted cumin seeds or pine nuts, whole seasoned chickpeas, or my absolute favourite Za’atar. However the calling of this recipe urged me to grab the Sumac from my spice pantry, which is what I went for in the end. Serve with whatever pleases your heart, i served mine with sourdough.

Perhaps it’s time to retire the grainy and dry supermarket hummus, boycott Sabra, and try out this flavourful recipe and let me know what you think over at our socials!