Ottolenghi's Creamy Hummus Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is homemade hummus not creamy? ›

You might need more tahini, garlic, lemon and/or salt and very likely more chickpea water. Add a bit of each as you need, the recipe explains. "Blitz the hummus until very smooth, a few minutes at least. Don't worry about the hummus being too loose; it will thicken as it sits."

To some degree it depends on who you ask, but mostly Israeli-style hummus is smoother and creamier than most of the hummus you find in your grocery store. It has a lot more tahini — a paste made from sesame seeds — in it than some other Middle Eastern varieties of hummus.

Garlic: Fresh garlic cloves are always superior to garlic powder, and it's especially true in homemade hummus! Baking soda: Adding baking soda to the chickpeas helps make the legume easier to digest, softer, and makes them easy to peel. Don't skip this ingredient!

As I'm sure you're aware, chickpeas don't have a lot of flavour to them, so they need some pretty punchy ingredients to make it what it is. Yes, adding things like cumin or paprika will make it more interesting, but at the end of the day, if there isn't enough salt and lemon (acid), it will taste bland and insipid.

Tahini is sesame butter, and to make creamy hummus, the secret is to first turn that into sesame cream! To do that, you need to emulsify the tahini in a water based liquid first. This will not happen if you just put everything into a food processor all at once!'

Two elements you need for food that's meant to be fluffy and creamy are air and moisture. Ice cubes do both jobs by whipping air into the mixture while adding a touch more moisture to ensure ultra-creamy hummus.

Sabra, co-owned as a joint venture between Strauss Group and PepsiCo, has struggled with salmonella and listeria contamination that led to recalls going back to 2015. In December 2021, the brand received a warning letter from the FDA highlighting several violations at its Virginia plant that makes hummus.

It tastes bad - the amount of lemon and tahini is off. It has preservatives and it has ingredients that are unnecessary (like salt), it uses soy bean oil, and other stuff like locust bean gum that I'm guessing is added for a smoother texture.

According to Solomonov, “the secret to great Israeli-style hummus is an obscene amount of tahini.” Unlike Greek-style hummus which is heavy on garlic and lemon, Israeli hummus is all about the marriage of chickpeas and tahini.

If you feel adventurous, try replacing the tahini with an equal amount of peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, Greek yogurt, chopped roasted peppers, pitted olives, roasted beets, steamed sweet potato, avocado, or thawed frozen peas, to name just a few possibilities.

Is hummus fattening or good for you? ›

Hummus: A Fantastic Snack or Meal Option

Because of the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat that it contains, it works to lower bad cholesterol levels, raise good ones, keep your brain healthy, and fuel your body to live your life to its fullest!

Chickpeas - or garbanzo beans, they're the same thing - have a very thin skin on the outside. You can eat chickpeas with the skin on, but they're better without. When making hummus, removing the skins will make your hummus much creamier and rich.

Next, enhance the blank slate of flavor with a few squeezes of lemon juice, a sprinkling of garlic salt, a turn of freshly cracked pepper, a heavy-handed sprinkle of paprika, and a generous drizzle of your nicest olive oil. Bonus points if you have an herby olive oil on hand with a little color to it.

Add Some Nice Spice

Spices like paprika, cayenne pepper and sumac all lend a marvelous layer of nuance to a classic hummus dip. Seasoning your hummus with spices is perfect when you want to supercharge your hummus dishes with flavor. This trick also works with making canned soup taste better.

If you find the hummus too thick, add some of the reserved cooking liquid and thin until you get the desired texture. Taste the hummus and add more salt, if needed. Spoon and spread the hummus into a shallow serving bowl (or two of them depending on size), building up the sides a little.

Things that will not make smooth hummus:

Removing all the skins from the chickpeas. Not only will it drive you crazy removing all the skins (honestly they seem endless), it will not make your hummus smooth. Adding lots of water. This will make your hummus watery and a little bit smoother but it will be way too runny.

Tahin and garbanzo beans are typically quite bland and since they make up most of the the bulk of the ingredients, without salt, your hummus will be pretty tasteless. I do a few things that elevate my hummus. I sauté my garlic in good olive oil with ground cumin before adding it.

Add salt, lemon juice, cumin, paprika, and cayenne to taste. Maybe that grocery store hummus is not quite seasoned to your liking. It might just need a touch more of the flavor-boosters you'd normally use to season hummus (salt, lemon, spice)—start slowly and taste as you go.