Hummus

Prateek, my brother, has one big beef with this blog—that he sees pictures of food he likes, but it unable to cook so many of them because they need an oven. Now, the funny thing is he does have an oven. His house came equipped with one, but he refuses to get an LPG connection to make it work. It is one of those decisions that is straightforward and obvious for him, but confounds us every time we see that oven just sit uselessly in his kitchen. 

So, today’s recipe for hummus is for Prateek. He doesn’t need an oven to make it. And now that he is the proud owner of a mini food processor, the only thing standing between him and home-made hummus is the overnight soaking time.

Hummus
(makes about 2 cups)

1 cup dried chickpeas
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil + more for serving
3-4 tbsp tahini, per your taste
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
Juice of a lemon
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste
Smoked paprika to taste

1. Soak the chickpeas in 2-3 cups of water overnight. Next morning when they are swollen to about double the size, drain and rinse them. Cook them in a pressure cooker with 4 cups of water on low heat for about an hour or until they are tender. Cool and drain the cooked chickpeas, reserving about ¼ cup of cooking water.

2. Combine the chickpeas, olive oil, tahini, garlic and lemon in the bowl of a food processor. Blend the ingredients together until the mixture is smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. If the hummus is too thick, add the reserved cooking water, a tablespoon, at a time to thin it.

3. Season the hummus with salt, black pepper and smoked paprika, and add more lemon juice or tahini if required. Mix well.

4. Transfer the hummus to a bowl, and serve with additional olive oil and a generous sprinkle of smoked paprika.