Hummus

In Arabic, Hummus means chickpea. Unsurprisingly, the main components of hummus are mashed chickpeas and tahini.

A town in Lebanon set a world record for the largest dish of hummus ever made in 2010. They made roughly 23,000 pounds of hummus. When I read this on Wikipedia, I thought, “Why is this a record we are preserving for future generations?”   

This is a pretty basic hummus recipe. I made a couple of alterations to a recipe from allrecipes by adding cumin and paprika.

I doubled the recipe; so don’t pay too much attention to the quantities in the pictures. I also didn’t measure any of the ingredients. The ingredients for a smaller, more manageable batch of hummus are 2 garlic clove, 1 can chickpeas, 4 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons tahini, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon paprika, and 2 tablespoons olive oil.

I don’t have a food processor or blender, so I made this using a fork. It was a labor of love. The first recorded recipe for hummus is from the 13th century, so this isn’t the first time hummus has been made without the aid of an electronic gadget. I mushed the chickpeas and some of the liquid reserved from the can.

I added the garlic, lemon juice, salt, cumin, paprika, and oil.

I also added the tahini. Tahini is made from hulled and ground sesame seeds. I learned something new today! In addition to being eaten throughout the Middle East, sesame paste is also eaten in China, Korea, and Japan. Who knew?

 I smashed all the ingredients together.

I ate it with pita (of course) and vegetables. Hummus is wonderful! Making it is pretty quick, especially if you have a blender. It’s also cheaper to make then buying premade at the grocery store.

I liked the lumpy texture of this hummus too. Sometimes I wish I had a blender or food processor, but not in this case.