Monday, 7 April 2008

Hummus Bi Tahina and a Discourse

I love hummus! I've tried a couple of times to make it at home - but it hasn't been as good as the stuff I can get from the wee Turkish shop round the corner. Until now!

Some random titbits about hummus for you...

It is also spelt hamos, houmous, hommos, hommus, hummos, hummous, chumus or humus. The most common Turkish spelling is humus - but as that means 'compost' in English, we generally stick to 'hummus'!

'Humus' is the word for chickpea! So if you make a hummus type dip with another legume - you really shouldn't call it hummus...

I got the above from a great post about hummus from Desert Candy. Check out the rest of the blog too - it's fab!

Traditionally hummus should be made with either tahine or olive oil - but not both! You should drizzle olive oil on the top of either when serving though. (Notice I actually did add a little bit of olive oil to mine !)

Someone has written a food blog - all about hummus!!

I think hummus is better the second day - when the flavours have had time to meld. Warning though - the hummus will probably thicken overnight - add some water to loosen before serving!

Hummus will keep for up to a week in the fridge.

Hummus is best made with freshly cooked chickpeas, but canned will work well too!

Hummus bi Tahina


  • 3 cups cooked chickpeas
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • juice of 1.5 lemons
  • 3 tbsp tahine
  • 2 tbsp olive oil (plus more for drizzling)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • paprika or cumin for serving
In a food processor, blend the garlic, tahine and salt, then add the lemon juice. Blitz til well mixed, then add the chickpeas. With the blender on medium, blend for 3/4 minutes. After the first minute or so, slowly drizzle in the 2 tablespoonfuls of olive oil. You want it to be light and fluffy, and creamy in colour. Add a little bit of water to loosen if required.

Serve drizzled with olive oil, a dusting of paprika or cumin, and pita breads. Though not necessarily the pitas I made that day!!


Hummus, served with one of my few successful pita breads!

5 comments:

  1. Peter M7 April 2008 at 15:19

    Aye, I bet you've already your send batch.

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  2. Jen7 April 2008 at 16:22

    This looks so good... hummus is always one of those I've meant to make at home but haven't gotten around too. I did buy a bag of chickpeas this weekend though so maybe I'll try. I don't have a food processor though- do you think I could make it in a blender?

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  3. aforkfulofspaghetti7 April 2008 at 19:24

    Yep, definitely not humus - not in the UK, anyway. Just brings back memories of biology lessons and worms...

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  4. PG7 April 2008 at 19:58

    Thanks for the recipe! I'm going to star this. I bought chickpeas yesterday with the intention to make some hummus. I couldn't find any reasonably priced tahini this week at the grocery store, so I'll have to try again next week.

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  5. Laura Paterson10 April 2008 at 13:20

    jen - I'm sure a blender would be fine. It shouldn't be too thick, so should blend well enough - just make sure the chickpeas are cooked to 'melting' point :)

    psychgrad - tahini is really easy to make at home! Tahini recipe here

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