My First Hummus

So I decided to give Hummus a try. We don't use canned items very often because of the amount of sodium they use to preserve canned items so I bought dried chickpeas. 

I measured 2 cups out and filled up this 4 cup measure to the top with fresh spring water and left them on the counter overnight to soak. In the morning, I drained them and rinsed them a couple of times.

After soaking overnight, they doubled in size.

Then off they went to get cooked. I put them in a saucepan, covered with twice the amount of water as peas and boiled them slowly for about 1.5 hours. I think I should have gone another 10 minutes or so because they really didn't want to give up their skins easily. An important step here is to reserve the cooking liquid after cooking the peas. It's needed in the making of the hummus. 

There they are all cooked and ready for peeling.

After cooking, I rinsed the peas in cold water a couple of times to help loosen the skins. Then the tedious chore of skinning happened. From what I read online, this was a crucial step in making a nice smooth hummus so I peeled and peeled until I had 2 full cups of peeled chickpeas. I reserved the remaining chickpeas for a different recipe. 

The tedious chore of peeling peas.

4 cloves of minced garlic

I prepared the other ingredients. I minced 4 cloves of garlic (next time I would roast the garlic in its skin in a 400º oven for 10 minutes), added the Tahini, I ground up some cumin I had using a mortar & pestle, a little sea salt, 2/3 cup cooking liquid, and some lemon juice.

Yum! Ready to eat!

I don't have a food processor so I used my KitchenAid hand blender to puree all the ingredients together. It worked very well and it was a far cry easier to clean than a food processor!

My first Hummus and those sprouts are almost ready

The day after I made this, I made a fresh batch of tortillas. Spread hummus on a fresh tortilla, cover with super fresh sprouts....makes a fine lunch!


Edit: 2014-Mar-01
I realized I didn't include the recipe...here it is.

Hummus Recipe

Ingredients: 

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, cooked for 1-2 hours, rinsed, peeled.
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sea salt
1-1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cumin, ground
6 tbsp Tahini
2/3 cup cooking liquid

Use hand blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. If too thick, add extra cooking liquid.

If you substitute canned chickpeas, omit the sea salt and reserve the liquid in the can and use in place of "cooking liquid."