Hummus – The best basic recipe

Making your own hummus is much easier than you think! This delicious chickpea cream is the perfect vegan dip for bread and vegetables and is an integral part of oriental cuisine, especially in Levantine cooking. I personally grew up with it and am sharing my family’s original simple hummus recipe with you here.

What is hummus and what does the name mean?

Hummus is a delicious vegan dip made from chickpeas, sesame paste and spices. When my mother says “hummus”, it’s not necessarily clear in the first few seconds whether she means the dip or the chickpeas themselves. In Arabic, the name is synonymous. Chickpeas are called hummus. And as the cream consists mainly of chickpeas, it has also been given this name.

These are the ingredients for hummus

You don’t need many ingredients for the original hummus recipe:

• Chickpeas: There is no hummus without chickpeas. It is important that the chickpeas are cooked really soft. Personally, I use pre-cooked canned chickpeas and cook them even softer.
• Baking powder: Use a little baking powder to cook the chickpeas, as it changes the pH value and the pulses soften more quickly.
• Tahini: Tahini is a type of sesame butter that gives the hummus both its creaminess and its fine nutty aroma. Without good tahini, it won’t make good hummus. It’s as simple as that. I have described how you can even make tahini yourself in this recipe.
• Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice gives the dip a good acidity.
• Garlic: You can use garlic according to your own taste. If you are a fan of garlic, then add a little more to your hummus. If not, then use it more subtly.
• Cumin: You can buy it in stores either as whole seeds or ground. You need the ground version for hummus.
• Water: For a perfect consistency, add a little water. This makes the hummus nice and creamy. You can then use the water to determine the consistency of your homemade hummus yourself.
• Salt: Add a pinch of salt to the hummus. It’s best to taste it again at the end of the preparation.

Which chickpeas to use for hummus?

You can easily make the original hummus recipe from dried chickpeas or you can use pre-cooked canned chickpeas. If you want to make your own hummus with dried chickpeas, you will need to soak the dried peas in plenty of fresh water for at least 12 hours before cooking. You can then cook the chickpeas for approx. 90 minutes until really soft.

It is easier with pre-cooked canned chickpeas. Although the pulses are already cooked, they still need to be softer to make really creamy hummus. I’ll start with canned chickpeas and explain how to make the creamiest hummus yourself in the next step.

Make your own hummus in 3 steps

The original hummus recipe is very easy and quick to make. You’ll be ready in just three steps!

• Cook chickpeas until soft: Even canned chickpeas should be cooked again until soft for really creamy hummus. To do this, simply put them in a small pot and fill it up with fresh water. Then add some baking powder and bring the chickpeas to the boil and then simmer for approx. 25 minutes.
• Prepare the hummus ingredients: While the chickpeas are cooking until soft, you can take care of the other ingredients. Simply peel the garlic, squeeze the lemon, weigh out the tahini …
• Puree the hummus: Finally, simply blend all the ingredients into a fine cream using a good hand blender or mixer.

Recipe: Make your own original hummus

4 tips to make your hummus like the original

• Soft chickpeas: The chickpeas for authentic hummus really need to be really soft. You can recognize the perfect cooking stage by crushing a cooked chickpea directly between two fingers without using any force. They should be as soft as warm butter. To speed up the softening process, you can add a little baking soda or baking powder to the water. This changes the pH value and makes the outer structure of the chickpeas more porous, which means they cook and soften more quickly.
• Lots of good tahini: Tahini is a very important ingredient for authentic hummus. That’s why you really need a lot of it in the dip. I use 100 g of tahini for 200 g of cooked chickpeas. This makes it perfect! Make sure that the tahini is nice and runny and has not separated in the jar. I personally buy tahini in an opaque plastic container. You can get this in Arabic supermarkets or online.
• Water for the consistency: I use cold water to adjust the desired consistency of the hummus. The more water you add, the more liquid it becomes, of course. I have given you the perfect amount in my recipe. I personally don’t use ice cubes, as I don’t have precise control over how much liquid goes into my hummus.
• Skin the chickpeas: To get the most creaminess possible, you could also remove the skin from the chickpeas. This is actually a lot of work if you don’t have this super trick at hand: After you’ve cooked the chickpeas, you can strain them, then cover them again in a pot of cold water and then gently stir them in by hand. The skins will then come off all by themselves and you can simply scoop out the skins with a ladle. Super easy!

What to eat with hummus?

I like to serve hummus with a little olive oil and maybe a pinch of sumac on top. But you can let your creativity run wild here. Lebanese flatbread, fluffy pita or crispy baguette are perfect for dipping!

You can serve a whole variety of delicacies with hummus. However, freshly made falafel or the Lebanese kebab skewer called kafta go particularly well with the original hummus.

Fresh hummus will keep for around 4 days in the fridge in a jar or fresh box covered with a little olive oil. If you want to freeze hummus, take a look at my instructions.

More variations with the authentic hummus recipe

Fancy more hummus variations? Then have a look through my hummus collection:

• Hummus with okra in tomato sauce
• Hummus with minced meat and pine nuts
• Hummus with roasted cauliflower
• Hummus guacamole style
• Hummus with mushrooms
• Hummus with roasted Brussels sprouts
• Spinach roll with hummus
• with sun-dried tomatoes

Have fun making your own hummus and enjoy trying out the hummus recipes.

You can also follow me on Instagram for even more inspiration about Levantine cuisine.