Easy Homemade Humous
Ingredients
- 1 tin of cooked chickpeas in salt water
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 large tablespoon tahina
- lemon juice
- good olive oil
- ground black peppercorns, to taste
- salt, to taste
- toasted pine nuts, to garnish, if desired
A word about ingredients...
You can buy dried chickpeas, soak them over night, and boil them for two hours, but life's too short, and they really don't taste any different. Personally, I resent paying 59p for a tin of chick peas in Sainsbury's: go to your local ethnic food type shop, and they'll be 20p. You can also get the tahina there, which is often called tahini... the light sort is nicer for this.Also, these are just proportions. I make up to four times this amount at once in my Magimix.
Method
This is a lot easier if you have a magimix/blender- Put the garlic clove in the blender, until it's finely chopped.
- Open the chick peas, drain off the liquid, and reserve.
- Put all the chick peas, apart from a handful, in the blender and blend.
- You want it to be slightly thicker consistency than the final desired one - add a little of the cooking liquid if you need it.
- Put in a tablespoon of tahina - more or less, depending on how you like it.
- Pour in some lemon juice, to taste... a more greek humous has a lot of lemon. I ocassionally use lime juice, also.
- Pour in a some olive oil, to taste. About a couple of tablespoons, or however you like it.
- Salt and pepper to taste. Bear in mind that the cooking liquid will be salty; make sure you taste the humous - it's the only way.
- I like to serve in a small bowl, scooping out a hollow in the middle, and put the reserved handful of chickpeas there.
- Pour over some olive oil, some toasted pine nuts, and sprinkle with paprika if desired.
A word about toasting pine nuts
After years of burning them under the grill, I discovered from a Sefardi friend that the secret is to cook them in their own inherent oil in a small pan on a light flame. Watch them, though; they're never great burned.