Super Smooth Hummus

by Hercules Noble

Makes: 1L

Good Food, Food Company is our series of easy, delicious recipes from some of our favourite cooks. Food to cook, eat and share in good company.

Hercules Noble, the sourdough and dinner party master, shares his recipe for creating super smooth hummus! Trust us, the extra effort is worth it.

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Ingredients

Equipment

Large pot

Blender with blade attachment

Medium - large bowl

Fine sieve or colander

Foil

Microplane or grater

Plastic rounded bench scrapper or rubber spatula

Method

The day before or morning of, soak your chickpeas in roughly 1.5L of water with a tsp of baking soda mixed in, for 8 hours or up to 24 hours in a bowl in the fridge or counter top.

8 hours later, drain chickpeas and rinse. Add to a big pot (preferably a ceramic pot) and cover with plenty of water, 1 tsp of baking soda, 2 heaped Tbsp of salt and optionally, 3 bayleaf. Cover with lid. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 1.5 hours or until chickpeas are super soft and easy to mush between fingers. Watch out as the baking soda may begin the froth up and overflow. Just remove from the heat and skim off foam if this happens.

In the meantime, cut in half a whole bulb of garlic, pop onto a sheet of foil, season with salt and oil, scrunch up the foil to enclose the garlic and roast in an oven on 180 for 30-45 minutes, or until nice and soft and lightly browned.

Grate 2 medium sized garlic cloves into a bowl using a microplane or grater. Juice roughly 8-10 lemons and add to the raw garlic. This helps take away the intensity of raw garlic.

Once the chickpeas are cooked, reserve a cup or so of cooking liquid for later, then drain in a colander, remove the bayleaves and allow to sit for 30 seconds before adding to the blender.

Start your blender on medium - high speed and allow it to run for a few minutes. If the chickpeas are sticking to the sides too much then just add a splash of the cooking liquid to loosen it up.

Squeeze out the roasted garlic from the skin and add to the blender through the opening at the top while it’s still running.

Then add your raw garlic and lemon juice combination, followed by roughly 180g of tahini. Adjust the seasoning with salt, then add a tsp of cumin. Continue to blend.

In order to loosen up the hummus I add a good splash of the cooking liquid as I like the hummus to be looser in texture, almost like a thick pancake batter. And remember, the hummus is still warm, so it will firm up once cooled down in the fridge.

Taste and check for seasoning. You’re welcome to add more tahini or lemon juice now.

Optional extra. Pour the hummus over a fine extra sieve (if you have one) and push it through using a plastic bench scrapper or rubber spatula. This makes the hummus just that much more smoother.

Pop in an airtight container and into the fridge.

 

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