Hummus

Hummus
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
15 minutes with precooked chickpeas
Rating
5(5,591)
Comments
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Hummus is an ideal dip for picnics, parties and everyday snacking. Serve it with pita, chips, crackers or cut vegetables. In this hummus recipe, adapted from "How to Cook Everything," tahini is essential, as are garlic and lemon. But this dip is also flexible: cumin and pimentón are optional, as are herbs or blends like za’atar. Hummus can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to one week.

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Ingredients

Yield:6 to 8 servings
  • 2cups drained well-cooked or canned chickpeas, cooking liquid reserved if possible
  • ½cup tahini, with some of its oil
  • ¼cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2cloves peeled garlic, or to taste
  • Juice of 1 lemon, plus more as needed
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1tablespoon ground cumin or paprika, or to taste, plus a sprinkling for garnish
  • Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

209 calories; 16 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 14 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 167 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Put the chickpeas, tahini, cumin or paprika, oil, garlic and lemon juice in a food processor, sprinkle with salt and pepper and begin to process; add chickpea-cooking liquid or water as needed to produce a smooth purée.

  2. Step 2

    Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more salt, pepper or lemon juice as needed. Serve, drizzled with some olive oil and sprinkled with a bit of cumin or paprika and some parsley.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
5,591 user ratings
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Comments

This is my go-to recipe for hummus. I've tried a couple of other recipes from the NYT, but they can't beat this one. I use 1 tablespoon of cumin and for variety, sometimes add a little smoked paprika (1/4-1/2 tsp). In response to the suggestion to remove the outer coating of the chickpeas to make the hummus smoother, I had just two thoughts: 1. How smooth does one's hummus need to be? 2. I hope I always have better things to do than de-coating chickpeas. Life can be hard, so keep hummus easy.

For the smoothest hummus, remove the hulls of the chickpeas. Get help, it is a little fiddly, but worth it. Also, I use a tablespoon of sesame oil, then I don't need to have a jar of tahini working its way to the back of my fridge.

I've made this recipe several times now, and I've settled on using the juice of two lemons and two teaspoons of cumin. I grew four different types of garlic last year, and I've made this recipe with each kind. The Chesnock Red Purple Stripe garlic is best of the bunch. This recipe is a keeper because it is so easy, and tastes so fresh. It's much better than anything I've ever bought.

Made hummus for our Greek-themed Thanksgiving dinner (what's better than turkey? Just about anything, but particularly moussaka) and I will never buy packaged hummus again. I did remove the skins and it was tedious, but the result was luxuriously silky. I agree on a generous hand with the lemon, and next time, I'll try toasting and crushing cumin seeds. NY Times Cooking... come for the recipes, stay for all the kibitzing and great advice.

I omitted the cumin. Used 2 lemons.

A couple of pinches of sumac are a nice addition. A neat cheat is that instead of jars or cans of chickpeas, your local Arabic/South Asian shop may have cans of hummus. It's usually pretty low grade, low on the pricy ingredients, treat it as chick peas and add the usual oil, tahini lemon etc.

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Credits

Adapted from "How to Cook Everything"

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