Life-Changing Hummus

 

Is it weird to say that a hummus recipe changed my life?



Well, if so, I really don't know how else to describe the Basic Hummus recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sam Tamimi's wonderful Jerusalem: a Cookbook. If you don't already have this book, do yourself a favor and buy it.

The recipes in it are truly spectacular and at least for me, very eye opening. I am relatively uninitiated in the world of Middle Eastern cuisine, and every recipe I make from this book has awakened me to interesting flavor combinations I've never experienced before. Plus, it's very well written and the pictures are gorgeous. Even if you don't cook at all, it's worth having as a coffee table book. I just love it.

Anyway, today, I decided to make Ottolenghi and Tamimi's hummus recipe. I'd been eyeing it ever since my mom got me the book for Christmas, but had been nervous because it calls for dried beans. Dried beans scare me. I don't know why, but I always worry they won't turn out. It's a completely irrational fear, especially when you consider what an inexpensive ingredient beans are. If you're gonna mess something up, they're sort of the ideal thing.

After a night of soaking 1 1/2 cups dried garbanzo beans in cold water, I cooked the beans with 1 tsps baking soda in a dry saucepan over high heat for 3 minutes. Then I added six and a half cups of filtered water and boiled them, skimming off the foam and floating skins periodically for about 20 minutes. When the beans were soft, I drained them well and pureed them in a food processor until they formed a stiff paste. Then I added the 1 cup plus 2 tbs light tahini, 4 crushed cloves of garlic, 4 tbs lemon juice, and 1 1/2 tsps salt and pureed the whole thing, drizzling in 6 1/2 tbs of ice water, for five minutes.

The result? Creamy, velvety, heavenly hummus unlike anything I have ever tasted. To be frank: it made me question whether we should be calling store bought hummus, "hummus," at all. One bite and you will be a convert.

It's not gelato; it's hummus. 

Smooth, creamy, heavenly hummus.

It is delicious served simply like this, spread on a plate or shallow dish, sprinkled with a little lemon juice, white wine vinegar, toasted pine nuts and fresh parsley, and scooped up with pita or flatbread.