Hummus or chickpea cream

How to make homemade Hummus .

Imagine a fine cream, very soft and exotic on the palate.

A recipe with legumes that we can accompany with a bit of crusty bread or freshly baked pita bread … yes, you have been right. A cream, pate or chickpea puree that is a classic in Mediterranean cuisine, hummus or chickpea cream. 

I assure you that this recipe is a delicious dish available to everyone, cheap, simple and where the chickpea is … but it does not seem so.

At home it is a dish that we cook at any time of the year, in summer and winter. It is timeless and fits great on any date. It is worth as cream, as a background in a salad, in a sandwich with some peppers … it is incredible.

The Hummus prepare him throughout the Middle East, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, although not all are equal. You can find many recipes and at home we have made at least 5 different ones.

But if I have to stick with the recipe of a friend, Alba, who adds a touch of cinnamon and another of black olives that are bad for her. A preparation that pulls more towards Greece than towards Lebanon.

I explain below how to prepare this delicious hummus. I only added this time, a touch of lemon juice, which looks great.

The most popular mix also has tahini and leaves a light sesame flavor that is delicious. Although you can already find delicious variants like this beet hummus or avocado hummus .

I include in the recipe how to prepare it in case you can not find it, it is also very easy. I leave you with it, I hope you do it at home and enjoy it.

Chickpea Hummus Preparation

1. For this recipe you can take advantage of some chickpeas that have been left over from a stew.
2. You can also use a pot of cooked chickpeas that they sell anywhere. I would not cook them, the recipe comes out of ten anyway.
3. Drain the chickpeas from the liquid in which they are preserved, you will see a little foam. Pass them through water until it disappears. We reserve in the drainer.
4. We make juice with half a lemon, strain it in case there are seeds and reserve.
5. Peel the garlic clove. I only prepare it with one but those who like it a lot can add more, like with gazpacho .

Crush and present our chickpea hummus

1. We place the chickpeas in the mixer glass with the following ingredients. Garlic clove, tahini , cinnamon, coriander (or failing parsley), the juice of half a strained lemon, ground cumin, a pinch of freshly ground black pepper, salt, extra virgin olive oil and a touch of paprika from La Vera.
2. We beat with the maximum power until we have a puree type cream but a little denser and we reserve in the fridge. Cold is much better.
3. If you have a food processor you can control the texture much better.
4. To present it the best thing is to choose a flat and large plate, in this way we will share it among several.
5. We distribute the chickpea cream.
6. Sprinkle with a little paprika from La Vera and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
7. We can accompany it with normal bread or pita bread with a touch of oven (which works best for you).

It is the most traditional, although you can accompany it with nachos, potato chips or raw vegetable sticks such as carrots or cucumbers. I leave it to your liking.

As you can see it has no science, it is easy and quick to prepare, very healthy and nutritious. A dish that children love and that you can even prepare with them.

I encourage you to visit more recipes for tapas, snacks and pinchos  perfect for an unforgettable evening with yours.

You can see all the step by step photos of the hummus recipe   in this album.

Preparation of the Tahine or Tahina

If you can not find where to buy this traditional Arabic sesame based pasta it is very easy to prepare it at home. So you will have it freshly made and with a little virgin olive oil it will last a lot of time. It can even be frozen.

Sesame seeds can be found in any supermarket or market. Measurements for the Tahine are: 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds, 4 tablespoons of extra mild virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt.

1. We begin by toasting or browning the seeds over very low heat for about 10 minutes. You can do it both in a pan and in the oven, whichever is most comfortable for you.
2. Once they are slightly golden (without exploding). We put them in a coffee grinder, give two touches and go to a mortar. If you don’t have a grinder, you do it directly in the mortar.
3. Add a splash of water and a little water. Mix with the mortar until you get an emulsion. The consistency should be creamy and even somewhat thick.
4. There should be a paste between white and gold, its flavor is pronounced and resembles that of nuts. Add salt to taste.

Your tips for a yummy hummus

• I leave you with a similar recipe of this recipe that has been sent to me by email (thank you very much Maitane):

You put a small jar of chickpeas already cooked in the mixer glass. Half a small container of cream for cooking, a Greek yogurt without sugar, the juice of a lemon, a clove of garlic, a pinch of ground cumin (about half a teaspoon), salt and a dash of oil. Beat, and voila!

To introduce it, I put a splash of oil on top and sweet paprika (if it’s true, better than better).

Then to drink I usually put it with the corn pancakes they sell to make Mexican fajitas, which is the closest thing to unleavened bread. You have a very tasty snack.

Does the skin of chickpeas influence? Do you want a creamier hummus?

• A friend Pedro Pedrona recently sent me an email. In it he told me that at home they used to curl the curl to make the best hummus, thanks to a tip he found on a US website, “Cook’s Illustrated”. Which of course I will continue in my next hummus recipe at home. Thank you Pedro:
• “ For a creamier hummus, peel the chickpeas off . How? With our simple method, removing the skin from the chickpeas is much less arduous than you could imagine. If we remove the rough skin from the chickpeas, a much creamier final product is achieved.
• When we saw a hummus recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s “Jerusalem” cookbook that used baking soda to make the process easier, we decided to give it a try. Ottolenghi and Tamimi stir baking soda with the dried chickpeas. After having soaked them overnight and drained.
• Then they heat the mixture in a kettle for a few minutes, before adding the water and cooking the chickpeas as usual. The alkaline environment created by bicarbonate helps break pectin from chickpeas. Softening the skins so that they disintegrate during cooking and are easily removed when rinsed.

1. In our method, we mix the rinsed and dried chickpeas with bicarbonate (one and a half teaspoons per bottle).
2. Then we put them in the microwave or in a pan over medium heat for two to three minutes until the chickpeas are hot.
3. Then we wash them in a bowl with three or four changes of cold water, shaking them vigorously all the time in our hands to loosen the skins, which will end up floating in the water. ”