There's no recipe here. It's just taste, taste, taste, until it tastes right. With the usual ingredients -- chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon. The key, for me, is lots of lemon.

Know what else is good? A handful of fresh basil. Yum.

dude see my askme thread


I heart hummus

As a big fan of Mark Bittman, I think his recipe is a great starting point. As mudpuppie points out, after doing getting the basics together, it's all taste taste taste. Funny how mudpuppie and Bittman both love the lemon. Obviously a sign of great taste!!!

doing getting? I dunno, you figure it out.

I also like a lot of garlic and a lot of lemon. I vary the hummus depending on use - if I'm taking it to a party as a dip, soupier with more tahini, oil, and lemon; if just using it at home, thicker for sandwiches and cracker spread.

It is an awesome food, and once you start making it at home it's a big savings. After getting that big can of tahini, you can make tons of hummus with just an .89 cent can o'chickpeas. Love it.

Love hummus.
Always turns out way thicker than I want. Can't ever seem to get that smooth consistency...I've tried taking all the skins off the chickpeas, which is a major pain in the ass, and it doesn't make a difference.
I like it really lemony and garlicky. Yes to the big jar of tahini (what else do you use that stuff for??)
But in a pinch I've used peanut butter or almond butter, still tasted great.

I love hummus. Hummus makes the world a better place.

There was this place at school that made the best hummus. It was so creamy. *droooool*
But they don't sell it anymore. Maybe it was cost-effective enough. :(

Love hummus.
Always turns out way thicker than I want. Can't ever seem to get that smooth consistency...I've tried taking all the skins off the chickpeas, which is a major pain in the ass, and it doesn't make a difference.
I like it really lemony and garlicky. Yes to the big jar of tahini (what else do you use that stuff for??)
But in a pinch I've used peanut butter or almond butter, still tasted great.

huh? weird.

A 15 oz can of chickpeas costs about $1.70 at the local shops. No joke. I bought a 25 oz can for about $2.60.

Next time I get groceries delivered I can get some for $1.

I've been making this a lot and using it as pasta sauce. I skip the tahini for cost reasons, and it's still good. Lots of lemon juice. And I also add cumin. One of those really speedy meals.

Chickpeas are easy to cook. I buy them in bulk, and it's way cheap. Cook up a pot on a day off, and you have plenty to make hummus, salad, and all kinds of goodies. Canned chickpeas are actually not bad as far as canned beans go. But if you're worried about cost, cook your own!

Mmmm home-made hummus. Mad envy, I need to pick up for tahini. I like adding bits of sun-dried tomatoes now and then but otherwise my default recipe is the same as mudpuppie's.

Chococat, are you using a food processor? I had mixed (har) results using a blender to make hummus but a Cuisinart rocked the task (it's also the only thing I use the food processor for as I've forgotten where the other blades are).

Yeh, chococat--I sometimes CHOOSE to substitute the peanut butter for the tahini.

I eat a ton o' chickpeas. Popcorn chickpeas with rosemary. Curried chickpeas with cauliflower. Quinoa with chickpeas and cranberries. Sauteed spinach with raisins and chickpeas. Oven-roasted garlic chickpeas. Grilled eggplant with peppers, topped with chickpeas and feta. . . .

Although I like hummus, and like to make hummus, and usually have cans of chickpeas around to facilitate the making of hummus, for some reason I never seem to have tahini on hand--it's one of those things I never remember to buy. So my own personal secret hummus trick is to replace the tahini, and the olive oil for that matter, with a tablespoon or so of sesame oil per can of chickpeas. (Plus the garlic and lemon, of course.) It produces a slightly different taste--a little "browner," for lack of a better description--but I like it better. (A great many things are better with sesame oil, including most cooked vegetables.)

Cook's Illustrated last year took on the challenge of discovering the ideal method for producing "creamy" hummus. I think hte solution had something to do with adding warm water. You could find out by hitting the library (I give my old issues away so can't look it up).

I never skip the tahini. I also like to add cumin: specifically I'll toast some cumin seeds in a dry cast-iron pan, and then grind them to a powder with a mortar & pestle. Recently I've cut back a bit on the amounts of lemon juice & garlic I'll add. Pine-nuts are a nice optional addition too.

*takes notes furiously, since the only batch we ever made was so bitter we couldn't talk for an hour*

I'm so sad. I am allergic to chickpeas. And I love everything you can make with them.

I think the solution had something to do with adding warm water.

Yup! I was so excited to see that issue, thinking I could further improve my hummus (which, frankly, is already gratifyingly delicious*), then opened it up to find that their method is my method. So. Um. The CI recipe is good. Check it out.

I like to drain and process the beans while they're warm. Even if I'm using canned beans, I drain, rinse, and heat them them in a pot of fresh water. I toss the garlic into the pan, too; letting it simmer for a few minutes tames some of the sharpness and brings out a mellower flavor. During processing, add a ladleful or two of the liquid to get a creamier texture.

I also sometimes use half garbanzos, half cannellini, or, to the horror of purists, all cannellini. Specklet, would that work for you, or are other beans a problem, too?

Like others have said, I often leave out the tahini. I always include a little lemon zest in addition to the juice.

Oh! And the tiny touch that I suspect is what induces guests to moans of delight: serve it warm. I zonk it in the microwave for a few seconds to take off the chill, and sometimes make a little well in the mound of hummus to fill with olive oil or balsamic vinaigrette.

*How delicious? Last summer, I asked a friend what she wanted for a wedding present. She answered "Hummus for sixty, and all the trimmings. Bring it to the wedding."

A splash or two of pickle juice and a squirt of sriracha hot sauce are my secret ingredients. I never use tahini, too lazy. I usually garnish with paprika and cilantro. Lots of olive oil and lemon juice...yes!

Oooh all cannelini I could do! Thanks, Elsa!

I love hummus so much. I buy it by the bucket at Costco and eat it just about every day. But I don't have any desire to make my own. It's weird, but there are certain foods that I just can't enjoy if I know exactly what is in them. I'd be tasting garlic and tahini and chick peas instead of just "hummus". (Does that happen to anyone else? Just me?)

Huh? It starts with DNA, no?

Oh, I thought you said humans.

This claims to have the CI recipe, and yup, there's a 1/4 cup warm water. They also add a pinch of cayenne pepper. I'll have to try that next time.

Okay, bookmarked that CI recipe, but it looks identical to the way I do it. I use a food processor...I think the only thing I don't do is add the extra water. Oh, I don't add cilantro either, but let's not go there. I've also read recipes that say to use dried chickpeas, or some say to cook them for an hour or something crazy like that and then chill them overnight, which is way too much pre-planning for me. Hummus is something I make when I want to eat it right now.