Making creamy hummus at home tastes so much better than any prepared hummus available in the grocery stores. With a whirl of my food processor, some canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans), and a few pantry items, I can have hummus that’s fresh, lemony, buttery smooth, and delicious, any time I want it.

Making hummus lets me decide the amount of lemon juice, salt, tahini (sesame paste), or garlic to add. I love adjusting the flavor by tweaking these ingredients to my family’s taste. By slowly adding the ice water near the end of processing, I can also control the thickness.

Using dried chickpeas, soaking them overnight, and then cooking them the following day is another alternative to using canned or if I forgot to soak, I’ll use my Pressure Cooker Chickpeas recipe that’s ready in 45 minutes. Both the dried and canned preparations are wonderful, with only a slight difference in taste between the two.

I enjoy serving hummus with homemade pita bread, turnip pickles, green olives, and vermicelli rice to go alongside our grilled meat for dinner, but it’s equally good with toasted pita, crackers, fresh vegetables or even used as a spread.

Hummus

by Julie Awad

6 to 8

PREP

10 mins

COOK

45 mins

TOTAL

1 hr

Ingredients

1 recipe for Pressure Cooker Chickpeas (about 3 cups), drained and rinsed, or 2 (14-ounce) cans

⅔ cup tahini, more as needed

1 pinch lemon zest

¼ cup lemon juice, plus more as needed, (from about 1 lemon)

1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon garlic, roughly chopped (2 cloves)

½ cup water cold

for topping

extra-virgin olive oil

handful of cooked chickpeas

a sprinkling of pine nuts, toasted

ground Aleppo pepper or paprika, sprinkle

1 pinch ground cumin

sumac

fresh parsley, finely chopped

Method

Start the recipe for Pressure Cook Chickpeas or warm the drained canned chickpeas with some water on your stove. Warming the chickpeas makes them softer and will blend better for a very smooth hummus. Set aside a handful of chickpeas for garnish, if using.

Drain and immediately pour the warmed chickpeas into a food processor. Blend them until a smooth paste forms. Add the tahini, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and garlic into the blended chickpea mixture and continue to blend for about a minute, making sure there’s no bits of garlic.

Now, with machine running, pour in the ice water a little at a time using the feed tube. You should notice that the hummus becomes lighter in color and the hummus is very smooth. Continue to let the food processor run and stop adding the water when you are happy with consistency (you may not use all of the water). Taste the hummus and adjust accordingly, adding more salt or lemon, as desired.

To serve

Spoon the hummus unto a large plate. Then use the back of the spoon to swirl the hummus towards the center of the plate. Press the spoon a little deeper leaving the outer edge and the center a little higher to create a little gully for the olive oil to pool. Drizzle a little olive oil over the hummus and sprinkle the edges with sumac (or cumin and Aleppo pepper). Whole chickpeas, pine nuts, or parsley may also be added. Hummus is best served at room temperature, but may be stored in the refrigerator for another time.