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Hummus: Technique for the Best Version
Greek and Levantine · Levant

Hummus: Technique for the Best Version

Hummus — chickpea purée with tahini, lemon, and garlic — is one of the most ubiquitous dishes in the world and one of the most consistently poorly made outside its origin region. The version served in most Western restaurants and available in supermarkets bears the same relationship to correctly made hummus as instant coffee bears to espresso. The technique is not difficult but requires non-negotiable elements: dried chickpeas cooked from scratch (canned chickpeas produce fundamentally different results), cold water added during blending (produces the characteristic smooth, light texture), and abundant tahini.

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Serves400ml
Total10 min
Sourced0of 2 in WA
Cook
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I

The Market List

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400g
tinned chickpeas
drained and rinsed
Your own market
100ml
tahini (hulled sesame paste)
Not yet stocked in Washington State
60ml
fresh lemon juice
Your own market
30ml
extra-virgin olive oil
Your own market
2 cloves
garlic
minced
Your own market
5ml
ice water
Your own market
2g
fine sea salt
Your own market
0.5g
Aleppo pepper
Not yet stocked in Washington State
II

The Method

1
Blend drained chickpeas with minced garlic in food processor until fine paste forms, 2 minutes.
2
Add tahini in three additions, pulsing to fully incorporate after each addition.
3
Drizzle in lemon juice slowly while pulsing until mixture becomes creamy, scraping down sides as needed.
4
With motor running, add ice water a teaspoon at a time until hummus reaches soft, spreadable consistency.
5
Season with fine sea salt, pulse once to combine.
6
Transfer to serving bowl, create shallow well in centre, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and dust with Aleppo pepper.
III

Sensory Tests

◇Where it lives or dies. The moment where hummus lives or dies is the tahini-lemon emulsion before the chickpeas are added. Put the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and a pinch of salt in the blender and blend for 1 minute. The mixture will lighten in colour and become thick and pale. This emulsification of the tahini is what gives great hummus its light, creamy consistency. Chickpeas added to un-emulsified tahini produce hummus that is dense and oily rather than light and creamy.
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V

What to Pour

Pouring for Washington State ·

Hummus is one of the most complete single dishes in the Middle Eastern tradition: protein (chickpea), fat (tahini), acid (lemon), and the cold water technique producing an emulsion that carries all these compounds simultaneously. As Segnit would observe, the pairing of chickpea with tahini is one of the great legume-nut combinations — the chickpea's glutamate-rich amino acids find a chemical complement in sesame's fat-soluble aromatic compounds, producing an umami depth neither achieves alone.

The whole pairing
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