TracyFood

Recipe: Party Hummus 23 September 2008 11:13 pm

Posted by Tracy in : advice,America's Test Kitchen,cooking,events,recipes,school,vegan,vegetarian , trackback

There was a fantastic recipe titled “Best Hummus” in the May-June 2008 issue of Cook’s Illustrated, and I’ve been using it as a guide to improvise delicious chickpea-based dips for parties this summer, with great success. I had sort of been brushing aside the resultant compliments until I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the hummus offered at a few NYU orientation events (sorry, NYU catering!) Turns out I’d forgotten how mediocre hummus can be. On top of that, I realized that I could submit my post about hummus to the third round of My Legume Love Affair, a blog event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook and hosted this month by Lucy at Nourish Me. I mean, really, it’s about darn time I jumped on that particular bandwagon of beany goodness. But back to hummus. The following hints should help prevent disappointment in homemade concoctions.

First, everybody’s taste in hummus is slightly different, but when in doubt, I vote for a texture with more light fluffiness and less pastiness, and this recipe achieves that goal. If you’d rather have something suitable for home decorating projects (caulk, spackle, you get the idea), by all means leave out some oil and water. That said, it is possible to omit ingredients and still get delicious results. Just before our going-away party in Eugene, I discovered that our tahini had grown mold, and threw it out. The hummus turned out fine anyway; I used a little extra olive oil to make sure it got a nice creamy consistency even without the sesame goodness. At our housewarming party here at the Moon Monkey Bar, Grille, and Cocktail Lounge, I forgot the lemon juice and substituted a few extra cloves of garlic for pungenty goodness. If you do this variation, I highly recommend finishing the hummus the same day it’s made, because the raw garlic will get stronger with time and try to destroy you, even if you aren’t a vampire.

And now, on with the recipe.

Ingredients

To make ~1 1/2 cups hummus.

1/2 cup dried chickpeas (or 1 15-oz can)
3 TB lemon juice (as previously mentioned, this can be optional, but you might want to use a little more water for consistency purposes, and maybe extra garlic or spices for taste reasons)
1/4 cup water
6 TB tahini (also optional!)
2 TB extra-virgin olive oil (at least)
3-4 cloves garlic (or 2 whole heads if you want to do the roasted garlic variation)
1 tsp kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon of the more finely grained kind)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 TB minced fresh cilantro or parsley (this is another optional-but-delicious ingredient that can be increased if you’re looking for more flavor)

Directions

Um, make hummus: If you’re starting from dried chickpeas, cook them first! Pre-soaking is really nice here because garbanzos are huge and sometimes need to cook for two hours even when soaked. The Cook’s Illustrated recipe suggests cooking the beans with 1/8 teaspoon baking soda, which I have never tried but the idea intrigues me. Back to hummus-making: first grind the drier ingredients, like chickpeas, spices, and garlic (a food processor really is the way to go here), then gradually add the liquid ingredients, first the watery ones, then the oily ones (the idea being to make an emulsion, like vinaigrette, with oil smoothly coating everything). Scrape down the sides of your food processor periodically during this process, and add the herbs last, or use them as a garnish if you prefer.

Serve hummus as a spread for sandwiches (falafel if you’re so inspired), use it as a dip with raw veggies or bread for dipping (pita is particularly nice), or chips if you must (the combination of hummus and corn chips still kinda freaks me out).

More possible garnish ideas: fresh herbs (as mentioned before); keep a few chickpeas aside; drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with spices (cumin is especially nice roasted up a bit in a dry skillet or toaster oven).

Roasted garlic variation: cut the tops off the heads of garlic and roast in a 350 degree oven for about an hour, then squeeze the roasty goodness out into the chickpea mixture at the solid ingredient phase. Because roasted garlic is so very mild, I recommend adding a clove or two of the raw stuff as well.

Again, enjoy!

http://www.nourish-me.typepad.com Lucy

Well, I’m all for the ‘pungenty goodness’ of extra garlic. In most things.

Great post – thing I like about hosting this event is finding great little new (to me) bloggers. Love this, Tracy, and thanks for joining us!
http://thewellseasonedcook.blogspot.com Susan

Ah, yes, roasted cumin, an incredible flavor and aroma for a winning recipe.