There are blogs about all sorts of specialist subjects including, as I’ve found out this week, hummus. Under the slogan “Give Chickpeas a Chance”, the Hummus Blog contains what it says on the tin: everything you could want to know about hummus. Well, not quite everything, as the promised 20 minute video on the science of making hummus turned out to be unavailable, but it is still the most comprehensive site I know on the subject.

Why am I interested? It is because I’ve been doing some more Middle Eastern cookery (see Cooking Jerusalem) and hummus is like bread and potatoes for the region. It also turns out to be easy to make, given a food processor and some time and, even only on my second go, the results easily match anything I’ve bought in the past.

Dried chickpeas are washed and then soaked overnight before being drained and cooked in water with some bicarbonate of soda until they go soft. Drained and rinsed again, they are blitzed in a food processor and then supplemented with tahini paste, lemon, garlic, salt and some ice cold water (ice cold perhaps to counteract the heating effect of the blending?). I think some recipes also include cumin although not the one I was working with. I scaled down the recipe to start with only 90g of dried chickpeas and still ended up with a small tub, which should be feasible to use up by the weekend.