Updated 5 August 2025 – making hummus for some of my bridge buddies for tomorrow, Wednesday 6 August. It is teacher Rob’s birthday, and we are having a glass of bubbly in the break. This time I am using a batch of adzuki beans which I accidentally boiled to more of a mush than beans suitable for, for example, a salad.
Updated 30 December while prepping for New Year’s Eve 2024: This time, I am using split red lentils which I had overcooked (very easy to do). I actually think it works better since you do not have the skins of the chickpeas to contend with.
Updated 16 January with this tip: For hummus, the best result is obtained when the “skin” is removed from the chickpeas. This is quite bothersome and time consuming and I have hardly ever bother. However, I have discovered that you can now buy dried chickpeas with the skins removed in bio supermarkets, at least in Berlin, of the brand Vivaterra. Also, to make sure that the chickpeas become nice and mushy for the purpose, add a heaped teaspoon baking soda (natron) to the water in which you soak the chickpeas for 10-12 hours. Rinse before boiling in new water.
400 g cooked chickpeas (if you must use tinned, then rinse thoroughly to get rid of the unpleasant “tinny” flavour)
Salt
3-4 cloves garlic
3-5 tblsp (up to 150 g) tahini
2 tblsp olive oil
Juice of 1,5 lemon
1,5 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds
1-2 dl cold water
If you are not using skinless chickpeas as mentioned in italics above, try to rinse and remove as many skins as possible. Then process all ingredients, tasting along the way, and add more of everything as needed.
Obvously, the creamier you want your hummus, the longer you have to process – up to ten minutes, which means the processor can run warm, and thus warm up the hummus. To counter that, instead of adding the cold water all at once, add an ice cube at intervals.
Refrigerate for a couple of hours to settle.