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Galganov's Recipe for Hummus Let's go make some fantastic hummus!
This hummus plate is prepared with fresh, home made pita; pickled grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, raw zucchini slices, carrot sticks, almonds and cashews ... and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. It is usual, in the Middle East, to have a bit of tahini sauce drizzled over a plate of hummus. |
The Background Story Based on chickpeas, hummus (also spelled, amongst other variations, as houmous, hummous, hommos, humos, hommus and hoummos) is a staple all around North Africa (the Middle East). Virtually all arab countries and Israel make hummus in one way or another. It is almost always made with tahini (sesame paste), and other ingredients listed in this recipe - rarely omitting any of them. Although the Arab nations will refer to this preparation as hummus bi tahini and the Israelis refer to it as hummus ve tahini it is almost always, in fact, made with tahini - making this label somewhat redundant. Because chickpeas (hummus in Arabic and in Hebrew) provide a high-protien, low-fat, food at such an economical cost, this (as felafel) is a middle eastern staple - served, almost always, with fresh pita. Chickpeas are legumes, or "pulses". They are available, in western markets, dried (in bags) or canned or even, sometimes, in bulk bins and the like. There are several kinds of chickpeas. Green chickpeas are, for example, grown and consumed raw in Latin American countries, are known as guasana. We use the infinitely more common (and typicaally used for felafel and hummus) white variety. With a total of around 9,000,000 tonnes in production around the world, India is the largest producer of chickpeas, or "chana" as it is known there - raising in the area of 6,000,000 tonnes of the produce. Pakistan is a distant second at around 800,000 tonnes. In the western hemisphere, Canada is a large producer at a bit over 200,000 tonnes per year. The flour from chickpeas, known as "gram pulse", or "besan" flour, is used in India for such treats as pakoras. We choose to use dried (bagged) chickpeas as we believe there to be potential health issues with (the lining of) cans. Additionally, the economy of dried product represents a substantial savings. We think the modest additional work and extra time to soak and cook the chickpeas is well worth it (not to speak of the taste of this less processed product). While it can take time (considering soaking time) it is easy to prepare. There are many devices which can be used to prepare hummus but in this day and age when food processors are so convenient and available we wouldn't even consider making it without a food processor. It certainly can be done otherwise but it makes no sense to us. We used, before the rise in popularity of home food processors, to use a blender but the truth is, a blender, today, is just too much work if you've got a food processor! |
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