Can a vegan food blog can exist without its own hummous recipe? I don't think so. And it's taken me years of making and experimenting with hummous (or however you prefer to spell it, I know everyone has a different way!) to finally perfect a home-made recipe that I really like.
So often I have bought supermarket tubs of the stuff, and wondered why my version was never quite as good. I have made so many batches of hummous over the years that I was becoming resigned to never quite being able to get it right, and yet it *should* be such an easy thing to make (but then, I never especially followed a recipe).
However finally, this is it. And I have a secret ingredient, which is sumac. If you don't know this middle-eastern spice, it's fairly sweet and tangy, a little reminiscent of sweet paprika, but not quite the same. It has more of a citrus edge to it, and it makes a very delicious addition to give a subtle flavour to a standard home-made hummous.
Please do let me know if you enjoy this recipe!
Home-Made Hummous
Makes about 2½ cups
2½ cups / 400g cooked chickpeas
2 cloves garlic
Juice of 2 lemons
3 tablespoons light tahini
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup / 125ml cold vegetable broth
1½ teaspoons sumac
½ teaspoon salt
1. Turn your blender or food processor onto full speed and drop the garlic cloves in. Turn off, then add the chick peas, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil, salt and sumac.
2. Use the pulse to blend a little, and add some of the broth. Keep blending, scraping down the sides, and adding the broth until you have your preferred consistency.
3. Serve the hummous with some additonal oilve oil drizzled over the top, and maybe a srinkle of paprika (or more sumac). Eat with warm pita bread or tortilla chips.
I really like the sound of this, using the veg stock reduces the amount of oil and the texture looks great. I've never used sumac, will have to check it out.
Posted by: Caroline Turner | September 17, 2012 at 12:16 PM
Did you end up making the hummous Caroline? Yes - I don't like to add too many tonnes of oil :) So using veg stock does help to keep it soft while not being so fat-heavy.
Posted by: Andrea - Chocolate and Beyond | September 27, 2012 at 09:29 AM
I add cumin too and its fantastic, it does take a few goes to get it right but once you do everyone raves over it!! and so easy. Im def going to try sumac too! Thanks
Posted by: Peta | September 28, 2012 at 09:12 PM
Thanks for the suggestion Peta - I will add some cumin next time too and see how that works out!
Posted by: Andrea - Chocolate and Beyond | September 28, 2012 at 09:26 PM
Mad coincidence, I had exactly the same feelings about hummus, it's one of my staple foods, but I couldn't make it as nice as the commercial stuff, and I couldn't understand why! Then I googled Sabra hummus, because that stuff is incredible, but I didn't really want to buy Israeli produce, so I thought, maybe I can find some hints as to how they make it so good. What I found out from that little google has been really valuable to me, which is that blending everything except for the chickpeas together first, makes a huge difference. I would never have thought so, but it really does.I also now add much more tahini and much less lemon than most recipes call for, because that seems to be how I like it. I imagine that without a super awesome factory blender I'll never quite achieve the smoothness of Sabra hummus, but in terms of flavour, I'm extremely happy with my hummus now. This got longer than I intended. Soz. :D
Posted by: carolyn | October 12, 2012 at 02:02 AM
Carolyn thanks so much for your tip! I would never have thought of doing that - putting the chickpeas in last to blend. I wonder how it makes it work so well? Next time I am going to try it - I'll update here as to how it works out! I did read elsewhere to take the skins off the chickpeas but that is WAY too laborious for me! I will google sabra hummus!
Posted by: Andrea - Chocolate and Beyond | October 12, 2012 at 09:44 AM