Recipe and column originally appeared in the Nevada Appeal on January 23, 2013.
INGREDIENTS
1 pound dry chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans) — around 7 cups cooked
8 ounces tahini
1⁄3 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped garlic, more to taste
Salt, to taste
1⁄3 cup reserved chickpea cooking water
Artichoke hearts (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Soak the chickpeas overnight in cold water, three times the quantity of water to chickpeas.
Cook the chickpeas until tender, with a few dashes of salt. If made in a slow cooker, cook on low for at least five hours, if not longer.
Drain the chickpeas, reserving 1⁄3 cup of the cooking water.
Add 2⁄3 of the chickpeas (or all, to make a creamier hummus) into a blender or food processor, along with the lemon juice. When blending, a little more liquid can help facilitate the process. Add a few tablespoons of cooking water as needed.
Add the tahini and continue blend until everything is mixed. Once the chickpeas blend with the tahini, the color should change to a lighter shade of yellow.
Decant the mixture into a mixing bowl and add into the blender the garlic, the lime juice, the olive oil and, if using, the artichoke hearts or other ingredients and blend. Add the new mixture into the mixing bowl and stir until well combined.
Add salt, or garlic salt, to taste. Start with two teaspoons. Just enough salt will make the flavors of the hummus pop.
Add the rest of the chickpeas, either only briefly blended or whole, depending on texture desires.
Refrigerate or enjoy immediately, The hummus will get just a little bit better and thicken after it has been refrigerated.
Hummus is shown with whole-wheat pita bread. I lightly toast the pita bread first. I’ve found Trader Joe’s is good for both the tahini, in the refrigerated aisle, and for the pita bread.
See (and download, under CC 4.0) the full Flickr album.
The cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) after they have been strained. The flecks of red are from red chiles they cooked with.
Lemon juice helps the blending process and adds a necessary acidity.
I add garlic (chopped) to the blender before adding the garbanzo beans.
Roasted green chiles, before they are diced and thrown into the blender. They were roasted on the barbecue.
You can get the perishable Trader Joe’s tahini sauce ($2.99 per 8 oz container) or get a larger container at an Asian market.
The tahini (sesame seed paste) is added on top of the chickpeas, in the blender.
The finished green chili hummus, after everything has been blended.