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Recipe - Moroccan Chickpea Hummus

by Erica Green

NOTE: Print this Page for easy reference when cooking.

 
If you have only ever tried pre-packaged Hummus, from the chiller section of your local supermarket, then I can understand why you might not be a fan. But, trust me, hummus is so easy to make at home, and is far superior in its fresh made state.  Once you have tried it for yourself, you won't look back.  Use it as a dip, spread on Turkish bread or in a falafel wrap.

 
Ingredients

Serves 4

• 400g can chickpeas, drained (reserve the water for later)
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2-3 Tbsp. reserved chickpea water
• 1 Tbsp. tahini paste
• 1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 Tsp. Moroccan seasoning
• 1/8 Tsp. chilli powder
• pinch salt to taste
• a sprinkle of sumac for garnish
• Serve with toasted Turkish pide bread

 
Method

• Process all ingredients (except the sumac and Turkish bread) in a small food processor until smooth.  
• Add a little extra oil or chickpea water if needed, to get the desired consistency. 
• Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
• Spoon into a small serving bowl and sprinkle with sumac. 
• Serve with chunks of toasted Turkish pide bread or pita bread.

About the Recipe

• This recipe is suitable for vegetarians and vegans
• This recipe calls for canned chickpeas.  You can of course cook your own, but good quality canned chickpeas are so readily available that I don't usually bother. Just make sure that the brand that you buy has been pre-soaked otherwise they may tend to be hard and you will not get creamy smooth hummus from them not matter how hard you try.
• Sumac is a ground red berry, with a lemony flavour, that is characteristic of Middle Eastern cooking. It can be found in most supermarket spice sections, but if you don't have any you could use smoky paprika or leave it out altogether.
• Tahini paste is a bit like peanut butter, but rather than being made from peanuts it is made from toasted sesame seeds, which are ground into a paste.  You may need to look in the health food aisle of your supermarket for this one.  You can choose to buy either the "hulled" or unhulled" variety.  It is about like wholemeal flour vs white flour.  There is no stabiliser in these products so you will need to stir it to stop the oil from separating. It helps if you keep alternating the jar from right side up to upside down, in your pantry from time to time.
• Alternately you can make your own Tahini paste.
• You could use peanut butter in place of the tahini paste.
• The oil in store bought tahini paste can go off quite quickly, so unless you use a lot of tahini you might like to consider making your own in small batches.  It is much nicer but does take a little more effort.  To make your own Tahini paste.  see the recipe in the on-line magazine ???? edition)
• Moroccan spice mixes typically contain:- turmeric; cumin; coriander; paprika; and rosemary.  They can be bought from your local supermarket under various brands (Eg: Hoyts, Master foods).  If you are really keen you can make it yourself, but seriously, not many of us are going to go to that effort.
• Turkish pide bread is a Middle Eastern flat bread which is quite chewy/moist with fairly irregular air pockets.
• Modify things to suite yourself here, add more garlic or ground chilli powder if you want.  I prefer to keep the oil content down in this recipe, but traditionally it would have more oil and more tahini.  I also like lots of the tart lemon flavour, but go with your taste here.
• Please don't substitute pre-packaged garlic paste for fresh garlic in this recipe.  Garlic paste is fine in cooking, I use it all the time, but when you are eating it uncooked, then fresh is the way to go.
• I find that a small food processor works best for this quantity, in order to maximise the smoothness.

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