Hummus: Why doesn’t everyone make this at home?

Hummus is a big favorite at my house, that means we go through it pretty quickly. Quick enough that I needed to figure out a recipe so we could start making it at home. This quick and easy hummus recipe will make you question why you’ve been buying over making your own. It’s that darn good!  It’s one of those foods that we were never even aware of until we moved into a bigger area.  Living in the middle of nowhere, there’s usual not too much cultural exposure with local grocery stores not carrying much in the way of ethnic ingredients.

Sure, we had heard of garbanzo beans before, but we had no idea that they were the same as chickpeas.  I mean, until we had hummus for the first time we weren’t even entirely certain that a chickpea was.  It was some kind of bizarre part of an infant chicken? Was it a pea? No.  Expectations shattered we were introduced to an entirely new bean that we had never considered using before.  Not too unexpected as growing up beans were pretty much the baked kind with sugary sauces or in chili.  Versatility wasn’t something we considered when  it came to beans.  So, when we learned that this was a raw snack with beans that tasted pretty great, we were thrilled.  Only we were still a bit wary about trying it out for ourselves not knowing it was so simple.  In our defense, when it comes to another culture’s flavor palette and techniques we are afraid we won’t be able to match it.  That there really may be super secret method or step that we wouldn’t know.

A basic hummus contains chickpeas, oil, spices, tahini (sesame paste) and garlic. Mine is no exception, but the quantities of these items is what really makes or breaks a recipe.  You may want to tweak the ratios to suit your own personal tastes.  I started with quite a lot of lemon and it ended up tasting like a lemon.  Too bright and we had to double everything else to get back to the earthy flavors of the chickpeas.