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Hummus from Scratch

• February 2013
• Recipes

Hummus is so good when you make it with fresh cooked chickpeas–totally different than using canned ones or premade store-bought hummus! It’s also easy and very inexpensive. If you make a batch once a week, you will always have some on hand to eat with crackers, bread or veggies, or to make bagel sandwiches or wraps for lunch or cragfood.

Get 2 cups of dried chickpeas and soak them overnight in a large bowl.
The next day, drain and rinse them and then cook them in a pressure cooker (if you have one) for 10 minutes, or else cook them in a crockpot or on the stove. It will take about an hour if you cook them in the crockpot or on the stove. I don’t measure the water, I just put about twice as much water as chickpeas.

When they’re done, drain off the water and save it. Let the chickpeas cool off (sometimes I cook them the night before I plan to make hummus and put them in the fridge). Ideally, you’ll have about 4 cups of cooked peas, so you can save some for eating on salad, or just salted and peppered as a snack (very delicious!).

So now put in a bowl:
3 cups cooked chickpeas
1/4 cup liquid from cooking them (you’ll add more later as needed)
1/4 cup olive oil
1-2 tablespoons tahini (not mandatory, but very good)
1-4 cloves chopped garlic
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
anything else you’d like to add (red pepper, kalamata olives, jalapenos, paprika, cumin, curry)

With a stick blender or a food processor, blend everything together. Check the texture, and add more of the chickpea water and blend again, until the final hummus is just a little softer than you’d like it to be–it will stiffen up when you put it in the fridge. It may take one or two times before you get a feel for how soft to make it in order to get the perfect consistency in the end.
enjoy!