01. Hummus - Where It All Began

Date Cooked: August 23, 2008
Recipe: 1
Page: 13

So this is the recipe that started it all. Back on that fateful day in the grocery store when I defied the corporate man and decided to spend my money making fresh hummus instead of buying a prepackaged container I’m sure they all just smiled. I was going to spend more money buying the ingredients to make the hummus than I would have if I had just bought the single container. Of course this doesn’t take into consideration the numerous batches of hummus I would be able to make from these ingredients so I win in the end!

The only difficulty I had in getting the ingredients for this recipe was finding the tahini, which is essentially ground sesame seeds, nothing else. I hit several large supermarkets until I eventually found it. In the past few weeks I have definitely discovered the stores in my area that carry the non-standard ingredients… I call them non-standard but considering the ethnic diversity of my community they are actually pretty standard. I’m just learning to open my eyes and look.

Hummus is really easy to make if you have a food processor and I was really surprised at both how good it turned out for a first attempt and how quick it is to make. I think I spend more time getting the food processor out and then cleaned up and put away than it takes to actually make. Well this would be true if I hadn’t discovered how to make it a truly smooth texture.

The ‘Best’ recipe makes mention that after rinsing the chick peas and towel drying them some lose their ‘skin’ making for a smoother hummus. Well I have found that if I take this to the extreme and remove the skin from each bean then I get a very smooth texture. Apparently I don’t have enough to do in the course of a day that peeling chick peas is an acceptable practice. But the results are worth it, a creamy dip without the slightly fibrous texture of the chick pea skin.

Since my first attempt at making hummus I have begun to deviate away from the ‘Best’ recipe. I have found that I like a spicier hummus with a little more garlic in it. A pinch in the ‘Best’ recipe usually translates into a half teaspoon or more.

I will continue to make hummus frequently. I always enjoyed it as a light dip and only ate it during family gatherings or social events, now I can enjoy it whenever I feel like peeling several hundred individual chick peas.