Homemade Hummus (and Pesto Hummus!)

I've been wanting to make hummus for a while, and now I've finally gotten around to it! It's surprisingly simple as long as you have blending equipment - I used an immersion blender, which worked but was a bit tedious. A food processor would be much more effective, I think, but I don't have one on hand. For the recipe, I used one, found in an online forum, that was attributed to Jamie Oliver. I'd certainly recommend hummus from scratch! It's so much easier to customize flavors to your liking. Plus, I now have a full jar of tahini and few other uses for it, so I foresee much more hummus-making in the future!

To make the process easier, I used all the shortcuts available to me. Instead of dried chickpeas, I used canned. I also used jarred minced garlic and red pepper powder in place of a whole dried chili pepper. Using dried chickpeas would be more time-consuming but cost-effective, so take your pick.

I found that my immersion blender worked much better when I had more liquid in the mix. On my first try, I blended only drained chickpeas, which was quite challenging.

First batch of completed plain hummus! This turned out to be much too thick after refrigeration. Remember that hummus will become thicker when chilled. I thinned my second batch with some of the reserved liquid from the canned chickpeas, and the texture was much more to my liking.

Jamie Oliver's Hummus

Ingredients:

350g chickpeas, soaked overnight (or an equal weight of cooked, canned chickpeas, drained)

1 clove of garlic

1 1/2 tbsp tahini

1 small dried red chili

1/2 tsp ground cumin
Extra virgin olive oil, about 4 tbsp
Salt and pepper to taste
Lemon juice to taste

Directions: (Start from step 2 if using pre-cooked chickpeas)

1. Rinse the chickpeas. Cover with water and cook for about 1 1/2 hours or until very tender. Drain, saving some of the cooking water.
2. In a pestle and mortar, grind the chili and cumin with some salt. (If using pepper powder, simply add the chili and cumin to the food processor after step 3.)
3. In a food processor chop the garlic, then add the chickpeas, chili, cumin and tahini and pulse until smooth.
4. Add more salt, pepper, oil and lemon juice to taste. If it is too thick, add a little of the cooking water or water from the canned chickpeas.

I also took this as an opportunity to make my favorite flavor: pesto hummus! I've had it a couple of times from Costco and Trader Joe's, I think, but it's not something I've been able to find during ordinary grocery shopping trips. 

I made the recipe the same way, except I replaced the olive oil with about 4-5 tablespoons of pesto and left out the lemon juice. Remember, most of the seasoning ingredients (cumin, salt, peppers, etc.) can be freely adjusted based on your preferences.

It turned out well - I really enjoyed it, especially as I had figured out the consistency I liked best in my hummus. I hope you give homemade hummus a try, and enjoy!