Hummus From Ratna LIn
Serves 6-8

  • 2 ½ cups dried garbanzos (chickpeas)
  • ½ cup garbanzo “broth” (see directions)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2-4 cloves garlic, pressed or crushed*
  • Salt to taste
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil\
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons tahini
  • 2 lemons, juiced
  • Pinch of cayenne
  • 1 teaspoon or more cumin
  • 1 teaspoon or more coriander
  • GARNISH: Olive oil, paprika or cayenne, plus tomatoes and olives – if desired

DIRECTIONS:

  • Pick over garbanzos, rinse, and put in a bowl with twice the amount of water
  • add the baking soda, and let soak overnight.
  • The next day, drain and rinse. Put the garbanzos in a pot with twice the amount of water (but no salt!)
  • bring to a boil, skimming any froth, then simmer very gently for 2 hours, or until soft.
  • If you will be making the hummus at a later time, let the beans cool, then refrigerate in a non reactive container with their broth.
  • Slow-cooker method: put soaked, rinsed beans in slow cooker with water, and turn on high for one hour, skim any froth, reduce heat to low, and continue to cook for 5- 6 hours, or until tender.
  • Check for doneness at 3 hours, stir, and skim surface. Repeat at one hour intervals.

Before resuming, heat the beans and liquid up to boiling, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Drain the beans over a bowl, reserving the cooking liquid. Blend, in batches if necessary, in a food processor, the beans, a bit of the cooking liquid, garlic, salt, olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, cumin, coriander, and cayenne pepper, in that order, in short pulses, scraping down the sides as needed with a rubber spatula. Once all the ingredients have been added, blend until smooth, thinning with additional cooking liquid to make a soft dipping consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

To serve, spread into a circle on a shallow plate or bowl, and garnish with a thin drizzle of olive oil, and/or a sprinkling of either paprika or cayenne, and parsley. Arrange wedges of tomatoes and olives around the circumference, if desired.
*Garlic varies significantly in strength and size, so start with one clove. Also, garlic’s strength increases after being cut, so if preparing a day ahead, either add garlic shortly before serving, or season at half strength at first, and adjust later.

NOTES: heating up the garbanzos up if they have been refrigerated is a technique I learned from Yotam Ottolenghi-it really does improve the flavor and texture.

Also, you can reduce the cumin by half if you think folks are averse to too much spice, and even omit the coriander.