Hummus is a Middle Eastern dip made from garbanzo beans, also known as chickpeas, and tahini. Tahini is basically sesame seed butter, and like all-natural peanut butter, you will probably need to stir it when you first open the jar. If you keep it in the fridge after opening, though, you shouldn't need to stir it again. Although many people eat hummus on pita bread, it's also great on crackers, crudité (a fancy French word for veggie sticks like celery, carrots, and sliced cucumbers), or anything else that is good with dips.
I started making hummus from scratch because my older son, Corwyn, absolutely loves it. Anytime we were at the supermarket, he'd ask me to buy a tub. Those tubs of ready-made hummus are expensive! And I thought to myself, "There's got to be a better way...or at least a cheaper one." I started with the basic hummus recipe from the 1997 edition of The Joy of Cooking. Corwyn tried it and said, "This is okay, mom, but could you make roasted garlic hummus next time?" I tried making roasted garlic hummus by just adding some roasted garlic to the original recipe, but that on top of the several cloves of raw garlic already in it turned out to be way too much garlic. I couldn't eat it at all - just a couple of spoonfuls left me feeling hideous for the rest of the evening. Determined not to give up, I began experimenting. This is my solution, and I think it's pretty tasty. Many hummus recipes call for canned garbanzo beans, but this one starts with dried beans. There are several advantages here, the main one of course being that even organic dried garbanzo beans are incredibly inexpensive. On top of that, when you start with minimally processed ingredients, you get to control exactly what ends up in your finished product. No additives, no preservatives, no weird stuff leaching from packaging or whatever. I have a big glass jar with an airtight lid that I take down to my local natural foods co-op and fill up with garbanzo beans. Not only is this an inexpensive way to buy them and a great way to store them, it looks really pretty on the shelf.
But enough with the introductions...on to the recipe.
Roasted Garlic Hummus
1. Cook the beans
Rinse 3/4 cup dried garbanzo beans and soak them in a bowl of water overnight. I use a medium sized mixing bowl and cover the beans with several inches of cold water. The next day, drain the beans through a strainer, rinse them again briefly, and put them in a pan with a couple of inches of water and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, until tender. I like to turn the heat off entirely at this point and let the beans cool slowly on the stove. Since we're essentially mashing them up, softer is better, and since you don't want to work with hot beans, this seems like the most efficient way to do things.
2. Roast the garlic
While the beans are cooking and cooling, roast your garlic. To do this, take a whole bulb of garlic and cut the top off so that the ends of the cloves are just exposed. This will make getting the good stuff out of the papery skins much easier later on. Put a small amount of olive oil (I never measure it - you just want enough to cover the bottom, maybe a teaspoon or so) in the bottom of a ramekin, roll the bulb of garlic around in the oil until it's completely coated, then set it with the cut side up and bake in a 350 F oven until the top is slightly browned and the cloves are soft and squishy. I have found this takes about 45 minutes, but your mileage may vary; start checking at 30 minutes, and check every 15 minutes thereafter until it looks right. Remove from oven and let cool.
3. Assemble the hummus
Drain the beans, reserving the liquid. The easiest way to do this is to put your strainer over a large bowl or liquid measure and then carefully pour the beans into it. Set the liquid aside.
Put the beans into the bowl of your food processor or blender, along with:
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 Tablespoons tahini
Squeeze or scrape the soft roasted garlic cloves into the food processor as well, discarding the empty skins. (This is usually messier than I'm making it sound, but that could just be me looking for an excuse to lick roasted garlic off my fingers. Roasted garlic is yummy all by itself, and some people serve it that way on crackers or small pieces of bread.) You can add a little sea salt at this point as well, but you may want to wait until you've processed everything together to ensure you get the salt just how you like it. Put the lid on and puree until smooth, stopping and scraping around the edges of the bowl a couple of times to make sure everything gets in there and you don't end up with chunks of chickpea in your finished product. You'll probably need to add a couple of Tablespoons of the bean cooking liquid to get the consistency just right; I usually end up using 3 Tbs. Once the hummus is smooth, add salt to taste and puree until blended.
Scrape the hummus out of your food processor or blender into a glass storage container with a lid. You could also use a bowl and cover it with foil or plastic wrap, but storage containers are easy to manage and not as likely to make a mess in your fridge accidentally.
Serve with veggies, crackers, or whatever you like to dip.
The Joy of Cooking recommends garnishing hummus with a little olive oil and paprika before serving, but I have never done this (it usually doesn't last long enough for fancy touches) and it's just fine without. You are welcome to try it that way though.
If roasted garlic isn't your thing, you can experiment with other ingredients too - take a look at the wide variety of flavours hummus comes in at the supermarket for inspiration.
Once you are done making the hummus, you can go ahead and discard the rest of the bean cooking water. Since it's full of nutrients, I like to water my plants with it. As we get into fall and winter, and I start making more soups and stews, I may also experiment with adding it to those - anything that brings a little extra flavour and nutrition to the party is a Good Thing, in my opinion.
