Hummus

Hummus

Hummus is a Middle Eastern and Arabic food. It can be used as a dip or as spread, whichever way you like. ‘Hummus’ is basically an Arabic word, which means chickpeas in English, ‘Channa’ (चना) in Hindi. Hummus is high in Iron, Vitamin C and Protein.

Ingredients

§  Chickpeas (चना)   – 500 gms (Boiled)

§  Tahini                – ¼ cup (approximately 60 ml) or ½ cup (Refer Tip *)

§  Lemon Juice        – ¼ cup (approximately 8 to 10 tbsp)

§  Garlic cloves       – 2 medium size

§  Salt to taste        – approximately ½ tsp

§  Black pepper       – ¼ tsp

§  Water                – 3 to 4 tbsp

§  Red chili powder – pinch of it for garnishing

§  Extra virgin olive oil – 2 tbsp for garnishing

Method

1.    Mince garlic thoroughly till you see it releasing its oil. This helps garlic to release its subtle flavor in Hummus, while it’s being processed into the processor. Keep the minced garlic aside.

2.    Into a clean and dry food processor, pour in Tahini and lemon juice. Process it for a minute. (Refer Tip **)

3.    Now add the minced garlic, black pepper powder, salt and chickpeas. Pulse the ingredients for a minute. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the container, to bring in all the ingredients together.

4.    At this stage the mixture will be quite coarse and very thick.

5.    Start the processor again and pour in water gradually. You can increase or decrease the amount of water depending upon the consistency you need. (Refer Tip ***)

6.    Keep processing it, till you achieve a nice whipped creamy consistency.

7.    Transfer the thick hummus onto a plate. Spread it a bit and garnish it with olive oil and red chili powder. If you want to add extra color to it, garnish it with some fresh parsley leaves too!! 

Serving

Serve with hot pita bread or whichever bread you like, with salads, rolls or anything with which you would love to have it with J. You can use it as a dip too.

Tip

*     Balance of ingredients is necessary to reach the perfect creamy consistency. You can increase the amount of Tahini to half a cup, if you like your spreads with more fat content to get even more dense results.

**   Mixing Tahini and lemon juice as a first step, gives the extra creamy texture to Hummus.

*** I have not used olive oil while processing hummus, but have used water instead. Initially I used to think that processing it with olive oil will give it more texture and creaminess but when I made it without it, it came to my surprise that the oil it had no effect on the texture and it didn't do anything for the consistency either. Instead, water helped the ingredients to release its flavors more and also helped in easy blending and reaching the desired creamy whippy.... consistency.

Try this recipe and share your comments and/or suggestions.