Ottolenghi Hummus

This hummus recipe from Yoman Ottolenghi and Sami Tamini’s Jerusalem cookbook is hands down the best, creamiest hummus I’ve ever made or eaten.

The recipe uses dried chickpeas – which require an overnight soak – so you’ll need to plan ahead, probably the only downside to this amazing recipe. Lest you try to shortcut it, know that I’ve made this recipe with both canned and cooked chickpeas, and can attest that starting with dried chickpeas makes a superior hummus. It’s a lighter color and flavor, much softer and just plain better.

You can tweak the recipe to your taste by making it more or less garlicky or lemony – the recipe as I’ve written it has a bit more lemon and a tad less garlic than Ottolenghi’s original. If you want, you can also add a scant 1/4 tsp cumin, as I have done. Or not. It’s up to you.

Ottolenghi has strong feelings about hummus, which he most adamantly believes should not be made with olive oil. Rather, one reserves the olive oil for drizzling on the hummus when serving. He also recommends only Al Arz or Al Yaman tahini, which I did not use, but intend to order for future hummus making. And thankfully, gives a nod to my added cumin.

In the Guardian’s version of this basic hummus, Ottolenghi adds bicarbonate of soda during soaking as well as while cooking the chickpeas. For some reason, the Jerusalem Cookbook version (which is what I used) only adds the baking soda during cooking. It’s unclear to me what difference these two approaches would make in the final product, but it is clear that adding baking soda at some point in the cooking process is crucial to getting a soft cooked chickpea.

Deb Perlman argues that peeling the skin from the cooked chickpea makes for an even creamier hummus, so I tried that. She’s right. And it’s not hard – if you truly cook your chickpeas to softness, the skins literally float off into the water. Now you just need to pick them out, and peel an occasional errant unshed skin. If this still seems like to much work, as Deb tells us, you can buy pre-peeled Indian split chickpeas (called Dal), so that’s now on my list to try.

This hummus is so much more than just a place to dip your carrot sticks and pita chips. For instance, you can use it as a bed for lamb and zucchini meatballs. (Recipe modified from this.)

You can find various iterations of this recipe on Food52, Epicurious , the NY Times or the Guardian, but do yourself a favor and just get Jerusalem, the cookbook in which it originally appeared. You’ll get so much more than just an amazing hummus recipe.

JERUSALEM HUMMUS

This makes a rather large batch of hummus (about 3 cups). Feel free to reduce amounts by half if you don’t need so much. I’ve modified the original recipe by adding 1/4 tsp ground cumin, increasing the lemon juice from 4 to 6 tbsp, and cutting back on a clove of garlic. I served it with a scattering of toasted pine nuts, a sprinkle of sumac and a drizzle of olive oil.

Ingredients
1 ¼ cups dried chickpeas (250 grams)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons light tahini paste (270 grams)
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 tsp salt
6 1/2 tbsp ice water
1/4 tsp ground cumin
For garnish
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp toasted pine nuts
1 tsp dried sumac

Instructions
Put chickpeas in a large bowl and cover with cold water at least twice their volume. Leave to soak overnight.

The next day, drain the chickpeas. In a saucepan, combine drained chickpeas and 1 tsp baking soda over high heat. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add 6 1/2 cups (1.5 liters) water and bring to a boil. Cook at a simmer, skimming off any foam and any skins that float to the surface, till soft. (For me this took almost an hour.) Once done, they should be very tender, breaking easily when pressed between your thumb and finger, almost but not quite mushy.

Drain chickpeas. If you want, pick out and discard the skins, peeling the occasional chickpea as needed (or not). You should have roughly 3 cups of chickpeas. Place chickpeas in a food processor and process until you get a stiff paste. Then, with the machine still running, add the tahini paste, lemon juice, garlic and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Slowly drizzle in the ice water and allow it to mix for about 5 minutes, until you get a very smooth and creamy paste. The hummus may seem thin, but don’t worry – it will thicken as it rests.

Transfer hummus to a bowl, cover surface with plastic wrap, and let it rest for at least 30 minutes. If not using immediately, refrigerate until needed, up to two days. Remove from fridge at least 30 minutes before serving. Garnish with pine nuts, olive oil and a bit of dried sumac.

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