Hummus, also spelled as houmous, is a middle eastern dip made from cooked chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and salt. Chickpeas are high in protein and hummus is great when used as a dip for raw vegetables such as bell peppers, carrots, or celery.
Hummus is easy to make yourself from scratch, if you own a blender, which is of course better than buying it store-bought. The good think about making it from scratch is that you can tune the flavor exactly the way you like it. Here is my version. I’ve used cooked chickpeas from a can as that is very good quality, but of course you could also cook dried chickpeas yourself.
Ingredients
For about 500 ml (2 cups) of hummus
2 cans cooked chickpeas, drained and liquid reserved
2 Tbsp tahini (sesame paste)
juice of 1 lemon
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, peeled and green part removed
For garnish
paprika powder
minced parsley
extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Instructions
Combine 2 cans chickpeas, 2 Tbsp tahini, 2 cloves garlic, the juice of a lemon, a teaspoon of ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper, 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, and 4 tablespoons of liquid from the chickpeas in the blender.
Blend, using the tamper to help the blending process.
Add more of the reserved liquid from the chickpeas as needed to get a smooth puree.
Keep blending until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper, lemon juice, cumin, or tahini.
To serve, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with paprika and minced parsley.
Flashback
A dish featuring two unusual ingredients: grey mullet and wild asparagus.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
Che buono!
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Such a healthy option snack as well.
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I love a garlicky hummus. A friend of mine has a trick where he just buys hummus from the store and adds garlic. It’s half lazy, half genius 😀
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I’ll add an extra spelling: hommus – well, if I do buy because of hurry, that is what is on the label of most of the kinds here 🙂 ! Absolutely love the stuff: no, no, I do not necessarily use it as a dip but as a substitute for butter on bread, toast and flatbread – works marvellously well with most of the fillings I use! Tinned chickpeas are fine for this methinks, but I DO wash the extra salt off them before use . . .
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Hummus❤️❤️ One of my top favorites!
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Reblogged this on Chef Ceaser.
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Sounds great, Stefan. I have to confess. I’ve never prepared hummus. When entertaining, I’ve always relied upon the kindness of others. Friends who ask what they should bring are told, “Hummus.” Works like a charm. I really should get some chickpeas, though, and make a batch following your recipe. I’ll bring it to a friend’s home when I’m invited for dinner. 🙂
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Very nice Stefan. John’s comment above made me smile.
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Hi Stefan, I quite often make a batch at home. Especially when I’ve got some really peppery olive oil in. Have you heard about the trick with the chickpeas that makes the best hummus by far. I say trick, it’s more like shave labour. In that all the skins of the chickpeas need to be removed. Otherwise they can leave a slight bitter flavour.
I have done it, only on a very small scale and it does make a difference sadly!
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Slave labour indeed! I’ve tried making pesto with mortar and pestle and it does make a difference, too. Now I’m looking for an electric mortar and pestle 😉
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Buono l’hummus! Mortaio elettrico? Sai che potresti avere successo? Inventalo 🙂
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Anche ottimo per fare il pesto 🙂
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Esatto!
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Many thanks for reminding me to make hummus although i always use dried beans because they’re cheaper, it’s not much extra work, and i think they taste better.
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I’ve never used chickpea cooking liquid, or any liquid besides olive oil to puree the legumes. It’s probably “healthier” although mine has never tasted oily. I’d love for you to try my suggestion. Use white beans, similar to Canneloni beans for your next hummus. Here I get Great Northern Beans. They much softer than garbanzos, and make a creamier hummus. In fact, I really dislike hummus at restaurants that is dry and mealy. I also make white bean dips instead of hummus, which I actually prefer over the traditional tahini and lemon version. Some spices, or a little fresh rosemary, or roasted red bell peppers, or whatever, and every time you have a different kind of dip! Plus you never have to peel these white beans!
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Hi Mimi, the canned garbanzos I used made for a very creamy hummus, definitely not dry and mealy. I wonder what those restaurants do, perhaps not use olive oil at all? I’ll definitely try it with white beans though, thanks for the suggestion.
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I think beans can continue to absorb liquid, so perhaps the restaurants make the hummus way ahead of time?
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The leftovers of my batch were still fine after a week.
I think they may also use store-bought hummus at some restaurants. Who knows what’s in that or how it’s made…
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I guess I’ll have to go to the Middle East and see what hummus is like there! Maybe it’s supposed to be on the drier side, but I certainly don’t like it that way!
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I used to make hummus for my coworkers in Vancouver. I haven’t made it in a long time now and have never posted on my blog about it. Which is weird, because I love thing thing. Kenji has a great post on hummus making. I wonder if you’ve read it.
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I haven’t seen Kenji’s post, so I’ll have to go check that out. Thanks for the tip!
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of course! http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/03/the-food-lab-how-to-make-great-hummus.html
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Hi Stefan,
What blender model do you use for such recipes? Is it Vitamix or something else?
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Hi Tomasz, yes it is Vitamix. Such a powerful blender is best to get a very smooth result.
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