Preparation time: 1 hour + overnight soaking
Cooking time: 10 minutes + 30 minutes cooling time
Number of servings: 4
Difficulty of preparation: easy
Food type: main dish
Utensils: blender
Cuisine: Israeli
INGREDIENTS
200g chickpeas
1 onion (peel)
100 ml of tahini paste
2-3 cloves garlic (peel)
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ lemon
½ tsp. zira
salt
COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
STEP 1
Add the chickpeas to a pot, pour cold water over them, so there is twice as much water as chickpeas. Leave to swell overnight.
STEP 2
In a pot with chickpeas add an onion, add water and place on medium heat. Cook the chickpeas until tender, about 1 hour. The ready chickpeas should knead easily when pressed. Remove the pot from the heat and let the chickpeas cool in the water.
STEP 3
Remove the chickpeas from the pot. Strain the chickpeas. Do not pour out the liquid in which the chickpeas were boiled, set aside. Add the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, 1 tbsp. chickpea water and garlic to the bowl of a blender. Blitz all the ingredients. Select 4 tbsp of chickpeas to serve and set aside. Add the rest of the chickpeas and beat the mixture until smooth. If hummus is too thick, add water from chickpeas a little at a time to bring to desired consistency. Add the cumin and salt and mix well. Put the hummus out of the blender and into a bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film so that the film touches the hummus: that way no “crust” will form on the hummus. Put the hummus in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
My tips and tricks:
No proper hummus thickness is a matter of taste. You can make hummus thicker or fatter by maneuvering the water from the chickpeas, which you and I don’t pour out after cooking. How you serve hummus also depends on your personal preference. Leave some whole cooked chickpeas for decoration, lightly drizzle olive oil over the hummus, and sprinkle with smoked paprika, sumac, or za’atar. To make the chickpeas cook faster, you can do as my friend Nastya did: before boiling the soaked chickpeas, pour them into a pan, add ½ tsp of baking soda and lightly fry on medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, and then add water and cook. This way you will automatically clean the chickpeas from the skins, and they will boil twice as fast, but they will become a little darker.