My Recipe for Hummus

After my Fourth of July party, a number of people requested my hummus recipe. Here it is:

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

2 Tablespoons salt

I carrot, 1 rib celery, and 1/2 onion, all cut into large pieces

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (1 large lemon)

1/4 cup well-stirred tahini

1 garlic clove or more, minced

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt to taste

2 to 3 tablespoons (30 to 45 ml) water

Dash sumac or paprika and chopped parsley, for serving

DIRECTIONS:

Pick over the chickpeas and place in water to cover by 3 inches, add salt, bring to a boil, and leave to soak over night. The next morning, rinse the chickpeas, cover by 2 inches with fresh water, add carrot, celery rib, onion, 2 garlic cloves, and two bay leaves. Cook until the beans are tender, and remove all but 1 1/2 cups. Set the removed beans aside and refrigerate. Cook the remaining 1 1/2 cups beans until mushy. Let cool in the liquid. Remove mushy beans from the liquid, discard vegetables and bay leaves. reserve a half cup of the cooking liquid and chill. At this point you can return the reserved chickpeas into the remaining liquid and serve them as a side dish, or you can save them and put them in a salad. The cooked chickpeas will keep in the refrigerator for about 5 days.

Next, put the garlic in the lemon juice for 5 minutes to mellow it. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the tahini and lemon juice and process for 1 minute, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl then process for 30 seconds more. This extra time helps “whip” or “cream” the tahini, making the hummus smooth and creamy.

Add the olive oil, minced garlic, cumin, and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the whipped tahini and lemon juice. Process for 30 seconds, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl then process another 30 seconds or until well blended. Add half of the chickpeas to the food processor and process for 1 minute. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl, add 2 tablespoons of the reserved chilled cooking liquid, then add remaining chickpeas and process until thick and quite smooth; 3 to 5 minutes.

If the hummus is too thick or still has tiny bits of chickpea, with the food processor turned on slowly add 2 to 3 more tablespoons of the cooking liquid until you reach the perfect consistency. Taste for salt and adjust as needed. Serve hummus with a drizzle of olive oil, a dash of sumac or paprika. and chopped parsley. Sprinkle some whole chickpeas on top of the hummus. Store homemade hummus in an airtight container and refrigerate up to one week.