Background

• Place of Origin: Middle East - It is not known exactly where hummus comes from but the word comes from Arabic and the earliest known recipes come from Egypt. This recipe follows the Israeli style of adding a lot of tahini to the hummus.
• Buy dried chickpeas and soak them in 2-3x water with baking soda for a few hours or ideally overnight, then wash, drain, add fresh water and pressure cook (with a bay leaf and some baking soda)
• The soaking and pressure cooking will remove anti-nutrients like raffinose and lectins that cause gas and inhibit proper nutrient absorption; they also taste better than canned chickpeas (which can be used in a pinch but should generally be avoided)
• Overcook the chickpeas in the pressure cooker to the point that they can be mashed between your fingers and the skins are coming off
• Removing the skins is time-consuming but will make the hummus taste better
• Retain the cooking water to add back in for creaminess; you can also make aquafaba with the water
• Buy good quality tahini or make it yourself from toasted sesame seeds
• Hummus Science

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried chickpeas (prepped as above)
• Baking Soda
• Bay leaf
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp cumin
• Olive oil
• 1 ½ cups Tehina sauce
• Minced parsley, Paprika or Aleppo pepper, roasted or whole chickpeas as garnishes
• Garam masala, harissa, chipotle sauce as mix-ins

Instructions

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight with baking soda and pressure cook with a bay leaf and a bit more baking soda (see above for more details)
2. Prepare the tehina sauce per recipe.
3. Combine the chickpeas, 1 ½ cups tehina sauce, salt, cumin, olive oil and optional mix-ins in a high-speed blender and puree until smooth and creamy
4. Transfer to a bowl or container and garnish with olive oil, minced parsley, roasted chickpeas, etc.