Sunday, May 22, 2022

Exceptionally Smooth (and delicious) Homemade Hummus + 10 Berry Recipes to Make Right Now

This is how I get my children to eat vegetables daily: every day around 4 o'clock pm, I set out a platter of raw vegetables, often some combination of sliced bell peppers, baby carrots (yes, the smooth-edged pellets sold in the wet bag), snap peas, cherry tomatoes, and spears of salted cucumbers. The selection will vary seasonally, but those are the mainstays.

I don't announce to the family the vegetables have arrived, I simply set out the veggies with a bowl of hummus on the side, and before long, the children gravitate toward the table and start munching.

I learned this approach from my friend Vicki, who pointed out a twofold benefit: 1. If your kid is picky (or likes control), this allows the kid to choose what he or she likes. And 2. If you don't get around to making a vegetable for dinner, whatever vegetables remain on the platter stay on the table for dinner.

For me, this "trick" has removed a lot of the stress of making dinner, because I know vegetables are already on the table.

For years, I served the vegetables with Sabra hummus, which everyone in my family loves. Then I discovered Hope hummus, which everyone loved even more. And then the pandemic arrived and finding tubs of our favorite hummus became a chore.

Several months ago, when all I could find was a tub of roasted red pepper hummus, which the children turned their noses at, I decided to make my own. And while I can't say "I'll never buy hummus again," homemade hummus has just about ruined store-bought for me.

I've been using the recipe from Michael Solonov's Israeli Soul. Michael's recipe has a higher ratio of tahini to chickpeas than many others I've seen, and his method is interesting, too: it calls for making a tehina sauce first, a purée of tahini, fresh lemon juice, garlic, cumin, salt, and ice water. Then you add the chickpeas and purée until the mixture is emulsified and smooth.

I have found I like my hummus a little more lemony than suggested in the recipe and without any cumin, but you, as always, should adapt this recipe to your tastes with more or less lemon, garlic, and spices.

Creamy Homemade Hummus

How to Make Exceptionally Creamy Hummus

In the notes preceding the hummus recipe, Michael writes: "When we cook chickpeas for hummus from scratch, we deliberately overcook them until they turn to mush. This is the secret to ultra-creamy hummus (that, and a $15,000 food processor)."

But in the recipe, he calls for using canned chickpeas noting "canned chickpeas in a home food processor will never make hummus quite as smooth as what we make at Dizengoff, but it will taste every bit as delicious."

Using my food processor, the result with either canned or from-scratch cooked chickpeas is just as Michael describes: creamy and delicious though not completely silky smooth.

But can I tell you what will make exceptionally smooth hummus? A Vitamix. I hate that such a pricey gadget is what works, but it does (see the photo comparisons in the post). The truth is that I prefer the experience of making the hummus in the food processor than in the Vitamix — it's easier to stream water through the narrow chute of a food processor than the gaping hole of the Vitamix lid, and it's easier to clean, too: I find removing whatever I've puréed in a Vitamix to be a complete pain.

But for creamy dreamy hummus, it's worth it. I hope you'll agree.