Hummus is a delicious Middle-Eastern dip made from boiled Chickpeas, lemon juice, and Tahini sauce and which is served as an appetizer with pita bread.
The word Hummus literally translates to chickpeas from Arabic. Its origins are believed to be from the Shami region (Lebanon/Syria/Palestine/Jordan) however the Lebanese are pushing hard to reclaim credit for it. A couple of years ago a large group of zealous Lebanese chefs broke the Guinness world record by creating the largest Hummus plate in the world weighing over 2 Tons, that’s more than 4,000 lbs of Hummus just to make a statement that Hummus is originally Lebanese.
How to Make Hummus From Scratch at Home
Making hummus at home from scratch is a very simple process summarized as follows: first you soak chickpeas overnight, rinse with fresh water, boil for about an hour, then while still hot mash them in a food processor with Tahini paste, garlic, some salt and lemon juice for a few minutes and voila!
Serve hot with a drizzle of quality olive oil along a side of salted cucumber pickles, chili pickles, olives and some greens such as mint, green peppers and onions.
Below is a photo of a Hummus plate I had at the Dannoun Restaurant in Tripoli, Lebanon. Dannoun makes the best Hummus ever, hands-down! They have their own special way of making it extremely smooth and they of course serve it hot with freshly baked pita bread.
Now on to Mama’s HomeMade Humus Recipe
- Serving size: 2 tbsp
- 1 lbs dried chickpeas
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 8 tablespoons tahini paste (pureed sesame)
- Olive oil to taste
- ⅔ cup of fresh lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon Paprika
- ⅓ to ½ teaspoon salt
- Rinse the dry chickpeas to get rid of any debris, then soak for 10 hours with ½ teaspoon of baking soda. If you don’t prefer to use baking soda, you’ll just have to boil them for a longer time so they get soft. Baking soda helps softening them quicker.
- Once ready, empty the soaked chickpeas in a colander/filter to get rid of the soaking water, then rinse it with fresh cold water really well.
- Add the chickpeas to a cooking pot with ½ teaspoon of baking soda (optional, just to speed the process) and then add about 6 cups of water (or until water covers the chickpeas by about ½ inch).
- Bring it to a boil on high heat, then let it simmer on low heat for about 1 hour while the pot is covered.
- Check up on the chickpeas 45 minutes into simmering to see if it’s done. The test is simple, try to crush a chickpea with your fingers, if it crushes easily and feels smooth then it’s done.
- Once the chickpeas are cooked, and while still hot add them immediately to a food processor with ½ to 1 cup of warm water and grind for a 3-5 minutes at low speed.
- Add the salt and garlic, then slowly start to add the Tahini paste as the food processor grinds away.
- Once done, slowly add the lemon juice at the end and let the food processor run for a couple minutes more afterwards. Taste the beautiful puree and see if it needs an adjustment of salt or lemon juice.
- Notes: Some folks suggest adding the boiled chickpeas water to the food processor instead of regular warm water. You could do that and result in a slightly richer taste, however the resulting hummus may be a bit tougher on the tummy due to all the baking soda in the water.
- As soon as the water starts boiling, a white foam will appear on the top, try to scrape out as much of it as possible (without removing water).
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marhaba..just discovered your wonderful blog and recipes!!!..but to truly make an authentic successful hummus bi tahineh one must peel the chickpeas before or after cooking..this makes for a much creamier, more intense flavored,much easier to digest dish..this used to be done by the traditional Shami hummos makers( and many still do) but the tradition is sadly disappering as we are all in a hurry..but once you eat this with skinned chickpeas you will never go back..this also should be done for falafel making after the soaking of the hummos..I noticed you do it in the kibbeh batatah recipe..
Hello Samir and thank you for your note. Do you follow the same process we showed in the Potato Kibbe recipe to skin the chickpeas? I agree that it yields a nicer hummus I think I’ll update the article eventually to include the process of skinning hummus. Thank you we appreciate your feedback.
yes my family does it the same way with the rolling pin.. especially for falafel making,or we cook the chickpeas ,then drain,reserving some cooking liquid for the pureeing,working by handful,submerge the chickpeas in a deep pot of cold water and rub the chickpeas between your hands to rub and pinch off the skins..the skins will rise to the surface,remove and discard them,repeat with the remaining hummos,,discard that bowl of cold water when done,peeling and sieving like this takes about 15 minutes,or finally if there is group to help we peel them one by one sans water.. what a huge difference in taste, texture and digestability..in the falafel making the crumb of the patty is much lighter,fluffier,less wet and better cooked and again easier to digest..
Awesome thank you Samir!! I think I’ll update the recipes with this but I’d like to try them out first for myself.. I appreciate your feedback
thank you for your great blog!! .. ps..for falafel making if you dont want to do the rolling pin method you can also soak as usual and rub the skins off in the same soaking water and bowl( when I say rub I mean put a handful of chickpeas in your palms and rub the hands together as if warming your palms) the chickpeas skins will break loose from the rubbing back and forth,plunge the peas back in the water and the loosened skins will float to top , discard them..continue adding more water if necessary..after they are skinned drain and dry thoroughly.. hope that is clear!!
I came upon this post while looking for recipes on how to make hummus. i live in Mumbai India and love hummus. Never made it before this. was astounded to see how easy it was. Thanks a lot
Kalyan
I wrote a post on it and linked your post to it http://finelychopped-k.blogspot.com/2011/07/calling-hummus-tale-of-tiniest-kitten.html
Your welcome Kalyan
This blog is great! Just now came across it while eating store-bought hummus and realizing that it is sooooo not even close to being as good as the authentic homemade hummus that I had from this WONDERFUL little Mediterranean restaurant while visiting my dad in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. So, I decided that I will attempt (for the very first time) to make hummus myself. Your recipe is, by far, the one with the best details that I’ve found. One question… why is baking soda used in the soaking and boiling? What would be different about the hummus if no baking soda was used when boiling the chickpeas?
Hello Moni and thank you for your kind words. Regarding the baking soda, it’s used to soften the Chickpeas. Otherwise you’d have to boil them for a much longer time than what the recipe lists. The key is that right after that night of soaking, you’ll need to rinse them really well to get rid of the baking soda. If you decide to try it let us know how it goes
Hey!!
I’m literally about to make this. Thing is…my mom already cooked the garbanzo beans and we did not measure out a pound. Now that they’ve expanded, i dont know how many cups of cooked garbanzo beans I need to make this hummus. HELP!!
i’ll be waiting for your reply
Hi Mariam – I don’t know off hand how much a cup of garbanzo beans weighs, but try to approximate and get in there a pound or so.. if you have less, no problem, just start with very little dozes of Tahini and garlic, in the food processor, and keep on adding them slowly until you hit a good balance.. When we do it at home we almost never measure/weigh, we just add a dash of this and a dash of that… I hope it turns out well.
I’m very excited to try this recipe! but I don’t know what Tahini to use… I bought the joyva sesame tahini. but im not sure if i should refigerate it or not. It is so clumped up in the bottom that its making it very difficult to even mix. help!
Hi Vanessa – sorry for the late reply. Tahini should not be refrigerated otherwise it will clump. It is a very thick paste so it naturally settles on the bottom of the jar and needs stirring prior to using. However if at room temperature, the paste is too clumpy it may be an indication that it’s old. We usually buy the “Al Wadi” brand which is made in Lebanon. We like it however there may be other good brands out there. You can buy it from local Middle Eastern stores, and if you don’t have any in your neighborhood feel free to check out website http://store.mamaslebanesekitchen.com or every Amazon.com.
Awesome recipe thank you!
I just made it from scratch using your recipe, it turned out very well. In fact, I even made the tahini sauce from scratch. I had a question, how is the consistency of hummus supposed to be? Mine is very fine but I think I overcooked the chickpeas.
Hi Deeksha – I’m glad you enjoyed the Hummus. Its consistency should be like a thick paste. I’ve had it made very fine, and I’ve also had it a bit granulated and both were tasty. The most important thing is to get the flavor right. If you’ve got that, consistency is a bit more secondary.
Hello, I plan on making this tomorrow and would like to know if I need to add the mint.
Thanks
Hi Carol great let me know how it goes. You could decorate the Hummus plate with some green mint leaves if they’re around but that’s about it. Mint is not included in the paste.
I tried this recipe the other day, it was very lovely. I served it warm like recommended and it tasted so fresh, and orders of magnitude better than cold served hummus. Thanks mama!!