What we call “hummus” is generally the tahini-enhanced kind; in the middle east, apparently, all chickpea purees are called that, and they name them more specifically based on the additional ingredients. Anyway, as part of my resolution to cook from every one of my cookbooks this year, I made the “Hummus bi tahina” recipe from “The New Book of Middle Eastern Food” by Claudia Roden.
I adapted her recipe a bit, so here’s how mine ended up:
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2 cups chickpeas, cooked from dry (keep the cooking liquid!)
Juice of 2 lemons
3 cloves garlic
6 tablespoons tahini
generous slurp of olive oil
salt
sumac
Throw the chickpeas and garlic in a food processor and set it spinning. Add the lemon juice and tahini, a slurp of olive oil, and then add the chickpea cooking liquid until it’s smooth and dippable. Add salt to taste — I found it needed a couple of good-sized pinches. I also like to add a sprinkle of sumac and blend it in, and then sprinkle a little more on top to serve. Sumac is a middle-eastern spice made from the dried berries of the sumac plant (which is not the same as the North American sumac, btw). It has a lemony-peppery flavour.