(Green) Hummous

Astrocat · Feb 2nd, 2005, 09:21 PM

I like to make hummous - it's something which is enjoyable and fairly easy to make, and which can be made in a sloppy way and improvised on as you go along.

To make hummous, you will need -

A heavy-duty blender
A few cloves of garlic
Some Tahini (either raw or cooked)
Liquid oil of some kind
Lemon Juice
Chickpeas - tinned ones work well, but it's healthier to use ones which you've cooked yourself.

Hummous can also be made with raw sprouted chickpeas.

My blender is a Tribest personal blender so it can make hummous just fine, but it has a tendency to kill normal-strength cheaper kinds of blender (so i gather :P) as it's a very stodgy thing to make so weaker ones have a tendency to burn out the motor trying to mix it up.

The amount of garlic you use is entirely down to you - usually a clove or two of large garlic or 3 or 4 cloves of tiny garlic is plenty for a large tub of hummous, but i like to add extra because i especially like garlicky hummous.

You'll probably want to use around a dessert spoonful of tahini ( ? ) Experimenting a few times with the taste will help you to find out what you like the most in a hummous recipe - a generous dollop of tahini is about as close as i can get to a quantity reccommendation.
Both raw and cooked tahini seem fine for this recipe.

For the chickpeas one normal or large tin of chickpeas will be plenty for making hummous or if you are cooking them yourself a mug - 1 1/2 mugs full of chickpeas is about enough.

The juice of one lemon seems to be quite adequate for the amount of hummous i usually make, i find.

With the oil, any kind of oil is suitable but i don;t reccommend using vegetable oil, sunflower oil or oils like that - olive oil is nice in hummous, but it's more healthful to use flax oil and my personal preference (and the oil ingredient of green hummous) is Hemp Oil - it gives it a really nice hemp taste which i fnd very tasty.

Obviously, though, you can change any or all of the quantities to suit your taste preferences or the amount of hummous which you would like to make.

For green hummous, i have used to recipes in the past.
The first included a handful or two of hemp seeds and ended up being more like a unique super-hemp dip/spread of some kind than a variety of hummous, while the second type is the most recent one I've made, and included a handful of fresh parsley from the garden - with the result that it turned out being very green.

Of course , you are welcome to add any interesting ingredients which you can think of to your hummous, to experiment with freely - ie perhaps you like to try making Cayenne Pepper hummous or hummous made with an assortment of garden herbs

let your imagination lead you to wonderful new taste sensations.

To make the hummous, it is best to use a pulse setting on your blender if it has one - to try to minimise stress on the motor.

Start by putting in all of the gooey / easy to blend ingredients - ie tahini , lemon juice, most of the oil and the garlic, then blend these together with a small amount of the chickpeas - from there add more chickpeas gradually while adding the rest of the oil as you go - this is just another way to try and save your blender from dying

I tried making raw-chickpea hummous a few times a while ago, but to be honest i found it to be decidedly odd...
It's sort-of like a spread which tastes like raw peas, or something.
It's quite unusual, but it was worth trying it to see what it was like.

enjoy, and have fun - don;t worry too much about making a mess of it, either.

I've experimented plenty, and although i have been more fond of some of my hummouses than others none of them have been unpleasant to eat.

**Steph** · Feb 3rd, 2005, 03:23 AM

...from there add more chickpeas gradually while adding the rest of the oil as you go - this is just another way to try and save your blender from dying...

I know what you mean about the blender Astrocat, my last one literally was smoked and smelled from the broken motor! My mom recently bought me a mini-food processor, so much nicer than my old cheap blender.
Hummous is so good and easy, my first homeade batch came out not as I would have liked (I put way too much tahini, and not enough lemon), but every subsequent batch was great! I love it really lemony, I never thought to add fresh parsley/fresh herbs, that sounds great I will try that next time to make it fresh and green

**Kiva Dancer** · Feb 3rd, 2005, 06:35 PM

If you can't find tahini (or it's too expensive to buy), then a small spoonfull of natural peanut butter works well in its place.

**Poison Ivy** · Feb 3rd, 2005, 06:47 PM

I like it made without tahini, and just crush the chickpeas with a fork so that its still quite chunky and thick in texture, with lots of garlic, a generous pinch of hot chilli powder and enough lemon juice just to hold it all together - YUM!!

**eve** · Feb 4th, 2005, 07:11 AM

I use a very quick method - simply tip a can of (rinsed) chickpeas into the blender, together with the juice of one lemon, a tablespoon or two of tahini, a little crushed garlic if wanted, and press the button to blend. While blending add some olive oil or flax oil.

So easy, and so tasty.

Jobey · Mar 14th, 2005, 03:32 PM

...from there add more chickpeas gradually while adding the rest of the oil as you go - this is just another way to try and save your blender from dying...

I just had a go like this but my blender still couldn't handle it

It didn't die but the rotors weren't moving so it probably would have if I'd carried on

**Ruby Rose** · Jul 28th, 2007, 05:30 PM

I followed a suggestion I read somewhere and started rubbing off the skins of the chickpeas before I make hummus - and it makes a real difference to the flavour. Well worth a couple of minutes extra making time.

**zorbed** · Aug 20th, 2007, 09:09 PM

I make humous without tahini, i find it too bitter tasting.

I like to cook the garlic first though in a little olive oil, (you can add other stuff like corriander here too) then add it to the chick peas, lemon juice etc etc and blend away.