I love hummus, but I never knew how easy it is to make, or that my homemade hummus would be better than any I ever bought from a store.

I found this recipe from Cookie & Kate, who have some wonderful other vegan recipes you can peruse and try out.

I usually tweak the recipes to make them easier or to suit my tastes, but this one is almost exactly as they wrote it. They describe it as the Best Hummus, and I agree. However, I’ve noticed that the brand of Tahini you use is very important. Some have a bitter taste that comes through the hummus. I landed on one from Amazon that made the best batches of hummus we’ve had so far. I don’t get any kind of commission from them, but this is the one I use.

Ingredients

  • 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda (if you’re using canned chickpeas)
  • ¼ cup lemon juice (from 1 ½ to 2 lemons), more to taste
  • 1 medium-to-large clove garlic, roughly chopped
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
  • ½ cup tahini
  • 2 to 4 tablespoons ice water, more as needed
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions

  1. Place the chickpeas in a medium saucepan and add the baking soda. Cover the chickpeas by several inches of water, then bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Continue boiling, reducing heat if necessary to prevent overflow, for about 20 minutes, or until the chickpeas look bloated, their skins are falling off, and they’re quite soft. In a fine-mesh strainer, drain the chickpeas and run cool water over them for about 30 seconds. Set aside (no need to peel the chickpeas for this recipe!).
  2. Meanwhile, in a food processor or high-powered blender, combine the lemon juice, garlic and salt. Process until the garlic is very finely chopped, then let the mixture rest so the garlic flavor can mellow, ideally 10 minutes or longer.
  3. Add the tahini to the food processor and blend until the mixture is thick and creamy, stopping to scrape down any tahini stuck to the sides and bottom of the processor as necessary.
  4. While running the food processor, drizzle in 2 tablespoons ice water. Scrape down the food processor, and blend until the mixture is ultra smooth, pale and creamy. (If your tahini was extra-thick to begin with, you might need to add 1 to 2 tablespoons more ice water.)
  5. Add the cumin and the drained, over-cooked chickpeas to the food processor. While blending, drizzle in the olive oil. Blend until the mixture is super smooth, scraping down the sides of the processor as necessary, about 2 minutes. Add more ice water by the tablespoon if necessary to achieve a super creamy texture.
  6. Taste, and adjust as necessary—I almost always add another ¼ teaspoon salt for more overall flavor and another tablespoon of lemon juice for extra zing.

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