Most from-scratch hummus recipes call for simmering
dried, soaked chickpeas for 1½ to 2 hours. Some even ask you to peel each
chickpea for optimum smoothness. Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, cookbook
authors and the team behind the Ottolenghi restaurants in London, cook theirs in
20 to 40 minutes. And no peeling. How, you ask?
The answer is baking soda, but not in the way you might think. Plenty of hummus
recipes call for soaking or simmering the chickpeas with a little baking soda
shaken into the water. It’s all about pH: Alkaline environments soften legumes
more quickly by weakening bonds between pectin molecules, while
acidic environments keep them stubborn and stiff. This is why you never want to
simmer beans with vinegar.
Ottolenghi and Tamimi go one step further in their
recipe: After soaking, they sauté the drained chickpeas with baking soda for a
few minutes before dumping in the water to simmer—a technique learned from
Tamimi’s grandmother. “We chose Sami’s grandmother’s way because we believe the
friction helps the breaking down of the skins and gets the baking soda to
penetrate the skin better,” Ottolenghi told me. This brief, direct contact
allows them to cook much faster and puree smoother. Without peeling.
A couple of final clever tricks seal the deal:
You’ll loosen the hummus with ice water at the end to cool it down quickly,
keeping the flavors sharp. And then you’ll rest it for 30 minutes, to let the
flavors and textures settle in. And then you’ll pour olive oil over it and scoop
it up with torn bread in heavy, spilt-over measures.
Serves 6
1¼ cups (250g) dried
chickpeas
1 teaspoon baking
soda
6½ cups (1.5L) water
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (270g)
tahini (light roast)
¼ cup (60ml) fresh lemon
juice
4 cloves garlic,
crushed
6½ tablespoons (100ml) ice cold
water
Salt
Good-quality olive oil, to serve
(optional)
1 Put the chickpeas in a large bowl and cover them with
cold water at least twice their volume. Leave to soak overnight.
2 The next day, drain the chickpeas. Place a saucepan
over high heat and add the drained chickpeas and baking soda. Cook for about 3
minutes, stirring constantly. Add the water and bring to a boil. Cook, skimming
off any foam and any skins that float to the surface. The chickpeas will need to
cook for 20 to 40 minutes, and sometimes even longer, depending on the type and
freshness. Once done, they should be very tender, breaking up easily when
pressed between your thumb and finger, almost but not quite mushy.
3 Drain the chickpeas. You should have roughly 3⅔ cups
(600g) now. Place the chickpeas in a food processor and process until you get a
stiff paste. Then, with the machine still running, add the tahini paste, lemon
juice, garlic, and 1½ teaspoons of salt. Finally, slowly drizzle in the ice
water and allow it to mix for about 5 minutes, until you get a very smooth and
creamy paste.
4 Transfer the hummus to a bowl, cover the surface with
plastic wrap, and let it rest for at least 30 minutes. Use straightaway or
refrigerate until needed, taking it out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before
serving. To serve, top with a layer of good-quality olive oil. This hummus will
keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
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