With a couple of vegetarians in the house, we go through a lot of hummus. I have another hummus recipe on the blog, but wanted to make sure I posted this one because it’s currently my favorite. i love the ratio of ingredients and the addition of cumin.

You can make this with canned chickpeas, but everytime I’ve made it, I’ve used dried chickpeas with great success. You need some advance planning because the chickpeas need to soak overnight. You boil them the next day. If you want to make this recipe using dried chickpeas, use about 3/4 cup of dried chickpeas.

Hummus
Recipe from Cookie & Kate

1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas (~3/4 cup dried) or 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (if you’re using canned chickpeas)
1/4 cup lemon juice (from 1 ½ to 2 lemons), more to taste
1 medium-to-large clove garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
1/2 cup tahini
2 to 4 tablespoons ice water, more as needed
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Drizzle of olive oil and/or paprika for garnish (optional)

Put chickpeas in a large bowl and cover with cold water at least twice their volume. Leave to soak overnight.

The next day, drain chickpeas. In a medium saucepan, combine drained chickpeas and baking soda over high heat. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add 6 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil. Cook at a simmer, skimming off any foam and any skins that float to the surface, from 20 and 40 minutes, depending on the type and freshness. Once done, they should be very tender, breaking easily when pressed between your thumb and finger, almost but not quite mushy. Drain the chickpeas.

In a food processor or high-powered blender, combine the lemon juice, garlic and salt. Process until the garlic is very finely chopped, then let the mixture rest so the garlic flavor can mellow, ideally 10 minutes or longer.

Add the tahini to the food processor and blend until the mixture is thick and creamy, stopping to scrape down any tahini stuck to the sides and bottom of the processor as necessary.

While running the food processor, drizzle in 2 tablespoons ice water. Scrape down the food processor, and blend until the mixture is ultra smooth, pale and creamy. (If your tahini was extra-thick to begin with, you might need to add 1 to 2 tablespoons more ice water.)

Add the cumin and the drained, over-cooked chickpeas to the food processor. While blending, drizzle in the olive oil. Blend until the mixture is super smooth, scraping down the sides of the processor as necessary, about 2 minutes. Add more ice water by the tablespoon if necessary to achieve a super creamy texture.

Taste, and adjust as necessary—sometimes I add a little extra salt and lemon juice.

Yield: ~2 cups of hummus

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Five years ago: Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Six years ago: Mallobars
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Ten years ago: Shrimp Toast
Eleven years ago: Chocolate Dipped Meringue Cookies
Twelve years ago: Snickerdoodles