Hummus

Ingredients

• Dried chickpeas — soaked overnight250 g
• Bicarbonate of soda1 tsp
• Tahini150 g
• Lemon — juiced1
• Garlic2 clove
• Iced water80 ml
• Ground cumin1 tsp
• Olive oilto taste
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Drain the soaked chickpeas, cover with fresh water and the bicarbonate and boil for an hour or ninety minutes, until they collapse. Skim off the foam and the floating skins.

   90 min

2. 2

   Drain, keeping a cup of the cooking water. Rub the chickpeas between your palms under cold water and the remaining skins float free.

   10 min

3. 3

   Blend the tahini with the garlic, lemon juice and salt — it pales and thickens. Add the iced water and blend again: it turns light and aerated.

   5 min

4. 4

   Add the warm chickpeas with the cumin and blend for at least three minutes, loosening with the cooking water. Three minutes is not an exaggeration; that is where the texture comes from.

   5 min

5. 5

   Spread it on a plate, sweep a channel round it with the back of a spoon, flood it with olive oil and dust with cumin.

About the dish

What separates home hummus from a good restaurant one is two things: skins and temperature. The chickpea skins have to come off, or the cream stays grainy however long you blend.

Iced water while blending turns the tahini paler and lighter. Warm water gives a dense heavy paste — the same effect as whipping cream at the wrong temperature.

The chickpeas are boiled until they fall apart, not merely until done. A pinch of bicarbonate in the water speeds that up and loosens the skins along the way.

Worth knowing

• — Tinned chickpeas work, but the skins still have to come off and the result is slightly denser.
• — Tahini can be bitter. Taste it on its own before it goes in: hummus will not rescue a bitter paste.
• — Serve it warm or at room temperature. Cold from the fridge it stiffens and shuts down; take it out half an hour ahead.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

320 kcal

Protein

12 g

Fat

20 g

Carbs

26 g

More from Israel

• Shakshuka — Eggs poached in a thick sauce of tomato and pepper with cumin and paprika.