I don’t like Mondays. But do you know what I like? Hummus. So I made my famous recipe yesterday to cheer me up.
Who does not like hummus? Nobody, right? Even kids love it. Well, at least mine. Just yesterday afternoon, my younger one was snacking on it with some carrot sticks when she got back from school. She looked very much like Bugs Bunny, so cute.
I am sure you’d like to give it a go. So here you go! Wuhu, three recipes in a row – so productive
Read the recipe till the end, I will show you how to twist it a bit to make it even fresher and more flavourful.
You will need:
- 100 g of uncooked chickpeas
- 2 cloves of garlic
- The juice of half a lemon – it depends on the size so don’t use it at once
- 2 tbsp of tahini sauce *
- 1 tsp of cumin powder
- 1 tsp of paprika
- Extra virgin olive oil – around 2 tbsp
- 1 tsp of coarse salt for cooking
- Salt/black pepper to taste
Directions:
- Soak the chickpeas for minimum two hours or overnight
- Rinse them under cold water, drain and transfer into a large pan or a pot with approximately 1.5 L/6 cups of water
- Add 1 tsp of coarse salt into the water and cover
- Bring it to a boil over medium/high heat
- Lower the heat to medium/low and cook until the chickpeas are tender – it takes about 30 minutes
- While the chickpeas are cooking, squeeze the lemon juice into a small bowl and remove the germ of the garlic cloves
- And if you want to make your very own tahini sauce, it’s time to take your blender out (see the asterix below) otherwise skip to the next step
- In the blender, transfer 3 tbsp of the cooking water, 1 tbsp of olive oil and half of the lemon juice. You will most likely add more of these three ingredients so don’t toss the cooking water away yet.
- Add the cloves of garlic, the cumin and paprika, the black pepper, and… 2 leaves of mint – minced. It is optional but whenever I have fresh mint at home, I can’t help myself
- Finally, add the drained chickpeas
- Don’t add any salt yet; the cooked chickpeas are already salty and so is the cooking water
- Blend well until creamy and smooth. Add more of the cooking water and olive oil if necessary, one tablespoon at a time.
- Taste it and only then add some salt if needed
- Right before serving, I like to drizzle some olive oil, paprika, and … cayenne pepper.
Note: you can remove the skin of the chickpeas by adding a little bit of baking soda into the cooking water. I personally leave it on to keep its nutritive value. I do not care about having the perfect creamy texture, all I care is to satisfy my palate
* How to make your own tahini sauce: toast some white sesame seeds over low heat by consistently stirring them. Toast minimum 100 g otherwise the blender will not have sufficient substance to work with. You can make more and store it in your fridge for months. When the seeds start to turn brown, press one seed between two fingers. If you see some oil on it, you can transfer the sesame seeds into your electric blender. Blend at low speed; it will take few minutes to get a nice creamy consistency.
Now that I shared the secrets of my hummus, I hope you will try it and let me know how you liked it.
Have a great week ahead!
Edit: if you are not a big fan of garlic, you will think it’s too garlicky. Use only one clove instead. In our house, we use a lot of garlic as it is a great source of prebiotics, the actual food for probiotics.
