An easy-to-follow, handy recipe by Chef Ajay Thakur to make fresh, flavourful Hummus at home.
Boil your own chickpeas for an extra creamy, smooth texture.
The hummus can be served as a dip or a spread and eaten with pita chips or had inside shawarma.
Photograph: Kind courtesy Bayroute
Classic Hummus
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
- 150 gm boiled kabuli channa or chickpeas, soaked for 12 hrs and then washed and drained
- 60 ml salad oil
- Few ice cubes
- 60 gm tahini paste
- 1 tsp chopped garlic
- ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Sprinkling sweet paprika
- 1 tsp chopped parsley
- 10 gm pine nuts
- 3 gm black olives
- Pinch baking soda
- 1½ cup water
- Salt to taste
Method
- In a pressure cooker, boil the soaked chickpeas with enough water to cover it and the salt, baking soda over medium heat for 3-4 whistles.
Let the pressure release naturally before opening the lid.
- In a blender combine the cooked chickpeas, garlic, salad oil.
Add the ice cubes, tahini paste and and blend to a smooth puree.
Make sure not to over blend.
Transfer into a bowl and garnish with the extra virgin olive oil, sweet paprika, chopped parsley, pine nuts, black olives.
Serve with pita chips, pita, lavash, carrot and cucumber or crisp pieces of toast.
The hummus can be stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for a week.
Note: For a Jain version, omit the garlic.
For a low sodium version, omit the baking soda.
This hummus is ideal for shawarma. Replace the mayonnaise in Ramapriya Suresh's Street-Style Chicken Shawarma recipe with hummus or add both.
Chef Ajay Thakur is the corporate chef at Bayroute, a restaurant in Mumbai.