Hummus, Part 2

originally published on March 6, 2021

This is a three-part post. Read Part 1. Read Part 3.

In Part 1, I told you I would share my hummus-making secrets, but they’re not actually mine. I’m just a regular old gringo, albeit one who loves hummus and has tried making it for years. But what do I really know about making hummus except that I’ve heard from others?

I obtained this recipe and various pro tips from a couple in Israel, Sergio and Rhoda, who post videos on YouTube. Rhoda’s father worked in one of those “hummus shops” in Israel, so he knows! Now there are tons of hummus videos on YouTube, and I’ve probably watched most of them. This one, though, stands out for it’s simplicity. I verified their recipe and pro tips for myself and include it below filtered through my own experiences. Believe me, my friend, when I say IT WORKS!

Below are the ingredients and procedures needed to make the best hummus of your life.

Ingredients

• 3 cups cooked garbanzo beans (a.k.a. chickpeas)
• water, as needed
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1 cup sesame tahini
• 1/2 cup lemon juice

Procedures

The beans: canned or dried

You can use canned or dried garbanzo beans. I prefer dried, but they take considerably more time and effort. If you use canned, be sure to drain all the liquid from the can and rinse the beans thoroughly at least twice to remove any foam then skip down to the last section where we finally make the hummus.

If you use dried, use two pounds of dried beans. You need to first sort the beans to remove any small stones or trash. Then rinse them thoroughly at least twice and put in a large pot for 3 days of soaking. Change the soak water at least once a day. So, say you start on a Friday night. You would sort, rinse, and leave them soaking. Saturday morning you would rinse the beans and replace the soak water. You could do this again Saturday night if you want. Sunday morning you would rinse the beans and replace the soak water. Then sometime Sunday afternoon, you would do one more rinse and then you’re finally ready to cook the beans. It’s a lot more work to use dried over canned as you can see, but it’s really about planning ahead.

Cook the beans

For the soaked beans, complete that last thorough rinse, then put the beans in a pot with plenty of water. If your water is hard, add a tablespoon of baking soda to help them cook more quickly; it really helps reduce the cooking time. They need to cook until tender, which is probably close to two hours. You will need to add more water during cooking and skim off the foam that is released. They will foam up a lot especially when they first approach boiling. Don’t let them boil over and be very attentive as they start foaming and approach the boiling point. When they reach boiling turn the heat down a little to keep the pot from boiling over and leave the cover partly off to let the extra steam escape. Stirring occasionally helps the foam come to the top. Continue removing foam until it’s mostly gone.

As the beans cook, they will start shedding their hulls. If you see hulls floating in the water, scoop them out with the foam. You really want to get rid of as many hulls as possible, since they don’t help the texture or taste of the finished hummus. We’ll revisit this shortly.

Cool the beans

When the beans are tender to the touch — you can squeeze them between your fingers — they are through cooking. If you cook them anymore they will turn into mush, which you don’t want. In the cooking process, you’ve probably spent about two hours, added a lot more water, and scooped off a lot of foam and some hulls. So now, drain off the cooking water and let them cool in the air. They are very tender at this point. If you add cold water to cool them faster, they will begin to disintegrate, which you don’t want.

Remove more hulls

Now that they’ve cooled down to room temperature, you can add cold water to help remove more hulls. Add water until it covers the beans and gently agitate with your hands. Many more hulls will come off and will float to the top of the pot where they can be drained off. Continue adding water, mixing gently, and draining off until you’ve removed most of the hulls.

Make hummus (finally)

If you had chosen canned beans, you would pick up here. See what you can save by using canned! But I still prefer dried. Either way, setup your food processor and assemble your other ingredients.

Put three cups of cooked, cooled, de-hulled beans into the food processor and add a little water, just enough so that the beans will blend. Place the cover on and blend on low. Leave it running — no pulsing! Don’t worry; your processor won’t explode. While it’s running, through the food chute, add the salt, tahini, and lemon juice and continue blending. Don’t be afraid to really let it run to achieve that ultra smoothness. The lemon juice and salt acts somehow to turn the beige-colored beans to white. I’m not sure exactly why this is, but the goal is white and creamy for the finished hummus.

Notice that the beans to tahini ratio is 3 to 1 or 3 cups of beans to one cup of tahini. You can use more or less beans, but adjust the tahini to stick to that ratio.

When you’re ready to taste, turn off the processor and sample with a clean spoon. Of course, you can add more salt, tahini, and lemon juice to suite your taste, but don’t exaggerate one ingredient over the others or you will lose that amazing blend of flavors.

Consistency is very important, so use just enough water initially to get the beans blending because the lemon juice will provide more liquid. Only if the hummus is too thick do you want to add more water or lemon juice, but use lemon juice first to nail the acidity, then resort to only water, a little at a time (since you can’t take it out!), if needed to achieve the desired thickness. You don’t want the hummus runny; thicker is generally better. It should be rather viscous and stick to a spoon when held upside down.

Do not skimp on the quality or quantity of the tahini. I know it’s expensive, but it’s a big (huge, actually) determining factor in the eventual taste of the hummus. Use good quality (and I’m not here to endorse any brands) tahini and the correct amount.

Taste and adjust the lemon juice and salt to your liking, since there is some room for personal preference here, but try to keep the consistency correct as explained above. And that’s it!

You should have produced some world class hummus!

Hummus is an amazing blend of flavors, an example of a food that is more than the sum of its parts. Each ingredient is critical and the ratio between them also critical. When properly prepared, some kind of culinary magic happens, and the individual flavors merge into one astonishing taste experience!

Now, there are an excruciating number of variations involving other preparation methods and other ingredients. Other methods might omit some of these tips or, at the opposite extreme, be too complicated, so my advice is to forget those. However, a common (and great) additional ingredient is garlic, and it’s easy. Just add fresh, finely minced garlic to the list of ingredients to taste after the lemon juice. With or without the garlic, my advice is to just nail the basic hummus, skipping other ingredients for now, and you will be proud and excited and your friends envious and jealous. You can experiment with variations later.

One more thing, though, and it’s important: Presentation. Since this is getting long, I’ll cover that topic in a future post.

Meanwhile, enjoy the best hummus you’ve ever made! It will be eaten quickly, so get the next batch of beans soaking soon (or buy the canned beans).