Delicious Hummus from Scratch

If there's one food my whole family really love, it's Hummus.  Hummus is a tasty savory spread/dip made from chickpeas (a.k.a garbanzo beans), tahini, lemon juice, cumin, and, depending on your taste, garlic.  I've been experimenting with making hummus from scratch. My first recipe was Mark Bittman's, which appealed because you simply put all the ingredients into a food processor and puree until smooth. I really liked this version, although mine came out rather thick. I added coriander and sumac and everybody really liked it.

A friend then brought his own version of homemade hummus for a picnic lunch and it was outstanding. And he had used canned chickpeas!  The recipe is from the cookbook Zahav by Michael Solomon, an Israeli recipe. This recipe produces a super light, almost fluffy, hummus with a meringue  -like shine.  It does involve a lot more washing up, but I think it's worth it. You make the a tahini sauce first, then add the chickpeas.

Here's my adapted recipe:

Chickpeas from scratch:

Soak chickpeas in water overnight. They will double in size. Cook, partially covered until very tender (about and hour and a half).

Tahini Sauce:

1/2 head of garlic

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1 cup tahini

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Break up the garlic and put the cloves into the blender unpeeled. Add the lemon juice and 1/4 tsp salt and puree. Wait 10 minutes for the garlic to mellow:

Strain the mixture into a food processor, using the back of a spoon to press as much of the strained liquid as possible:

Add the tahini, the remaining salt and the cumin to the food processor and puree, adding iced cold water to smooth the mixture out (I added about 1/4 -1/3 cup of water):

The result is this lovely, shiny tahini sauce:

 Remove the tahini sauce from the food processor to another bowl (don't skip this step). Clean out the food processor, then add 3 cups of cooked chickpeas and the tahini back to the food processor. Puree until smooth. Serve with cut vegetables and or crackers. Enjoy!