The Best Palestinian Hummus Recipe

What makes great hummus? What even is hummus? And most importantly, are we going to force you to read the entire history of hummus before actually showing you how to make it?

The good news, dear reader, is that you'll find the recipe directly below this paragraph. Because if you've stumbled salivating to our doorstep, you probably want to learn how to make hummus now and then maybe read the fluff afterwards.

Noor's Recipe for Palestinian Hummus

Servings: 2

Time Required: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chickpeas (soaked & boiled, or drained from a can)
• 3 tbsp tahini
• 1 large juicy lemon
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp water
• ½ tsp sumac
• ½ tsp cumin
• 2 tbsp Palestinian olive oil

Steps:

1. Add the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, salt, and water to a blender. Blend until everything becomes a smooth, consistent paste.
   
   
2. Taste the hummus. Troubleshoot as follows:
        - Not enough flavour? Add more tahini, lemon, and salt.
        - Too salty? Add more of everything else.
        - Too much like ground sesame paste? Add more chickpeas and lemon.
        - Too citrusy? Add more tahini.
        - A bit dry? Add a splash of water as needed.
   
   
3. Blend again if you added anything during Step Two.
   
   
4. Spoon the hummus into a serving bowl. Use the spoon to make a circular groove to contain the olive oil, a bit like in the stock photo above.
   
   
5. Sprinkle sumac and cumin decoratively over the top, then add olive oil to the groove (not the other way around, otherwise the spices will float on the oil). The exact quantities of these ingredients don't matter much, and none of them are strictly essential.
   
   
6. Serve with fresh Arabic bread (the Palestinian way) or carrots and celery (the New Zealand way). Sahtein!

More Hummus Hacks That'll Change Your Life (Or At Least Your Hummus)

• Some Palestinians add garlic to their hummus. Feel free to add a finely chopped clove to the mix before blending; just be aware that leftover hummus lasts much better in the fridge without garlic.
  
  
• This one's more of an anti-hack: connoisseurs will tell you to add an ice cube before blending everything, and to remove the skins of the chickpeas. Do these things by all means, but if you have limited time, don't feel bad for skipping them.
  
  
• A lot of hummus brands in New Zealand and Australia sell beetroot hummus, sweet potato hummus, chocolate hummus, and the like. That's fine, but it ain't Palestinian – and depending on who you ask, it probably ain't hummus.
  
  
• Hummus (حمص) literally means "chickpeas" in Arabic.
  
  
• When you're boiling the chickpeas, add a teaspoon of baking soda. This helps the chickpeas get softer, faster. Just watch out for the pot boiling over!
  
  
• For most people, the biggest psychological obstacle to making hummus is the thought of spending 12 hours soaking and boiling dry chickpeas. If you have space in your freezer, we recommend the following:
  
       1. Grab your biggest pot and use it to soak & boil a vast quantity of chickpeas.
  
       2. After draining and cooling, divide the boiled chickpeas into multiple ziplock bags, with each bag containing three cups.
  
       3. Freeze all of the bags.
  
       4. Whenever you feel like hummus, open one of the bags and empty the frozen chickpeas into a small pot. Pour boiling water over them until they separate, then drain the water. You now have exactly the right amount of chickpeas for two servings of hummus.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more recipes, and check out our Palestinian food!