Hummus from Dried Chickpeas: Silkier Than Any Tub
Hummus made from dried chickpeas is a different food from the tubs, and the difference is not a secret ingredient; it is doneness. The chickpeas are cooked past the point where a cautious cook would stop, with a spoonful of baking soda in the water, until each one crushes against the roof of the mouth with no resistance at all. Alkaline water speeds the breakdown of the pectin and hemicellulose that hold the cell walls together, so the skins dissolve into the pot and the centers collapse instead of staying chalky. Blended while still hot, beaten with a generous pour of tahini, lemon and garlic, then lightened with a stream of ice water, they turn into something pale and almost mousse-like. The chickpea and lentil guide covers buying the beans; the tahini guide covers the jar that carries half the flavor. This page is the method.
Ingredients, for about three cups
- 250 g (1 1/4 cups) dried chickpeas
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, divided
- 150 g (2/3 cup) tahini, stirred well in the jar; it should pour
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) fresh lemon juice, from about 2 lemons
- 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin, ideally toasted whole and ground, per the guide to toasting spices
- 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt, plus more to taste
- 60 to 120 ml (1/4 to 1/2 cup) ice water
- To serve: extra virgin olive oil, smoked paprika or sumac, chopped parsley, warm flatbread
Method
- Soak overnight. Cover the chickpeas with at least three times their depth of cold water, stir in 1/2 teaspoon of the baking soda, and leave them 8 to 12 hours. They will roughly double. Drain and rinse well; the rinse matters, because leftover soda tastes soapy.
- Cook them past cautious. Put the chickpeas in a pot with 6 cups of fresh water and the remaining 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Bring to a boil, skim the foam and loose skins, then simmer partly covered for 40 to 75 minutes. Add the salt for the last 15 minutes; salted water seasons the beans through and does not stop them from softening. The test is not a bite. Press a chickpea against the roof of your mouth with your tongue: it should crush into paste with no chalky center. If there is any resistance, keep going. Tender-but-intact is right for a salad and wrong for hummus.
- Save a garnish, drain the rest. Set aside a small handful of whole chickpeas for the top. Drain the rest well; the alkaline cooking water has done its job and should not come along.
- Blend hot. Tip the hot chickpeas into a blender or food processor and run it a full minute, until they are a thick, smooth paste. Heat is an ingredient here; warm chickpeas give up their starch and turn silky in a way the same chickpeas straight from the refrigerator never will.
- Add the flavor. Add the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin and salt. Blend another minute, scraping down once. The mixture will tighten and look stiff; that is the tahini seizing, and it is expected.
- Lighten with ice water. With the machine running, stream in the ice water a little at a time. The hummus will loosen, then turn visibly paler and fluffier. Stop when it looks slightly too soft, because it thickens as it cools. Rest it 30 minutes at room temperature, taste for salt and lemon, then swirl it into a shallow bowl with the back of a spoon. Pool olive oil in the grooves, scatter the reserved chickpeas, dust with paprika or sumac and parsley, and serve with warm bread.
Why it went wrong
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Grainy or chalky | Undercooked chickpeas, or old stock that will never soften, per why old chickpeas stay hard | Cook to the crush test, not the clock; buy beans from a shop that turns them over |
| Soapy | Too much baking soda, or the soak water never got rinsed off | One teaspoon in the pot is enough; rinse after soaking |
| Heavy and stiff | Too little water, or served straight from the refrigerator | Beat in more ice water; serve at room temperature |
| Bitter or harsh | A stale or scorched tahini, or too much raw garlic | Use a tahini that pours and tastes sweet from the spoon; hold the garlic to two cloves and let the lemon mellow them |
| Loose and runny | All the water went in while it was hot | Rest 30 minutes; it sets as it cools |
| Flat | Undersalted, timid lemon | Season at the end and again before serving, per the acid guide |
Notes and variations
The tahini is half the dish. A hummus this pale and light is carrying 150 grams of sesame, so the jar decides the outcome: it should pour like heavy cream and taste sweet and nutty, never sludgy or acrid. Msabbaha is the looser cousin: keep a full cup of the chickpeas whole, fold them through with extra lemon and cumin, and serve it warm as breakfast. The topping is a course of its own. Beyond oil and paprika: whole cumin toasted and ground, a spoonful of chile crisp, or the oil from a tin of fish. In Denver, water boils around 202°F rather than 212°F, and everything simmered takes longer; start checking at an hour and let the pot run to 90 minutes or more if it needs it, topping up with hot water. The altitude guide explains why. Keeping: it holds four days covered in the refrigerator with a thin film of olive oil pressed over the surface; loosen it back to life with a splash of warm water and a fresh squeeze of lemon.
The olive oil, the cumin, the sumac and the smoked paprika are at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com.
Sources & Further Reading
- Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (2004), the chapter on legumes
- Colorado State University Extension: High Elevation Food Preparation Guide
- The Pantry Dispatch: Do Dried Chickpeas and Lentils Go Bad?
- The Pantry Dispatch: Cooking at Altitude
