Hummus was one of the very first recipes I ever blogged about, and it continues to be a favorite recipe on my site. Making your own hummus is easy and affordable, and the resulting flavor is far superior to those tubs of store-bought dip. When you peel the chickpeas before blending, a light, silky texture emerges that is simply irresistible.
Hummus is an absolute staple in our home cuisine. Rarely a family gathering goes by without a dish of hummus at the table. This simple food is tasty, filling, heart-healthy, vegetarian, dairy free and gluten free. What could be better?
Since first posting this recipe, I have refined my hummus-making technique quite a bit. Peeling the chickpeas is a must, but I always found it to be a very tedious process. The owner of a local falafel joint shared his secret for peeling lots of garbanzo beans at once, and I’ve been using it ever since. This simple trick using baking soda works like a charm! I decided to update my recipe with this new technique, and I even added a video to help walk you through the steps- check it out down below the ingredient list.
Hummus has been a mainstay of the Middle Eastern diet for centuries. It is eaten as both an appetizer and a main course, usually served with hot baked pita bread and a bowl of olives. Hummus is often paired with fresh fried falafel and sometimes shared alongisde ful mudammas in a dish known as hummus ful. In Western countries, it tends to be served as an appetizer or snack dip alongside vegetable crudités, pita bread or chips.
A decade ago hummus was relegated to the health food stores, an oft-overlooked dip with a niche audience. The dip has gained massive popularity in the past few years, and now can be found at most major grocery stores in varying flavors. From roasted pepper to spicy jalapeño to white bean basil, you can find a variety of hummus choices on market shelves. Venture into making it yourself, and you’ll discover even more possibilities– like creamy avocado cilantro or exotic peanut hummus. Once you master the technique, you can come up with your own delicious ideas!
Hummus is very nutritious… and if you make it yourself, it’s affordable too. You can make about three times the amount of hummus for the price of one store-bought tub, and it tastes so much better made fresh. As long as you have a food processor, nothing could be easier. Of course, you could mash it the old fashioned way with a mortar and pestle, but it will take some serious elbow grease. I highly recommend the processor if you have access to one.
I sometimes add roasted garlic to my hummus instead of plain garlic. The roasting adds depth to the garlic’s flavor, and just a hint of sweet smokiness that I find delicious. It’s also easier on the digestive system than raw garlic. I have provided instructions for roasting garlic in a previous blog. Use raw garlic if you prefer a stronger, sharper garlic flavor.
Keep in mind that all ingredients are “to taste.” The key to great hummus is tasting often and adjusting the flavors as desired.
Hummus tastes best when made with cooked chickpeas instead of canned. To learn how to prepare the chickpeas, check out this post: How to Soak and Cook Chickpeas.
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Video by Entice Films
Classic Hummus
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups canned OR soaked and cooked chickpeas/garbanzo beans
- 1 tablespoon baking soda (optional - to help skin the chickpeas, then rinsed away - see instructions below)
- 1/3 cup tahini paste
- 8 roasted garlic cloves , or more to taste (you may substitute 1-3 fresh garlic cloves if you prefer a stronger sharper flavor)
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice , or more to taste
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil , plus more for garnish
- 3/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt , or more to taste
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- Paprika and fresh minced parsley for garnish optional
NOTES
Instructions
- If using canned chickpeas, drain and rinse them first. If cooking the beans, follow my soaking and cooking instructions here. Drain the beans after cooking and let them return to room temperature.To make this hummus ultra creamy, you should peel the cooked chickpeas. While this step is optional, I do recommend it for creamy results. To peel and remove the chickpea skins easily, place them in a skillet with 1 tbsp baking soda and stir, coating all the beans thoroughly with baking soda. Heat up the skillet over medium, stirring the beans constantly, for 2-3 minutes until the beans are completely heated throughout and the skins begin to separate from the beans.
- Pour the hot beans into a large mixing bowl, then immerse them in 3-4 changes of cold water, agitating the beans with your hands to release the skins. Loose skins should float to the surface where they can easily be discarded with each batch of cold water. When most of the skins are gone, proceed with the recipe.
- Another way of skinning the chickpeas (which takes a lot longer) is to take each chickpea and gently squeeze to remove the skin, then discard the skins before processing. While this step is not completely necessary, it will ensure that your hummus turns out very smooth and creamy.
- Reserve about 15-20 whole chickpeas for garnish. Outfit your food processor with a blade attachment. Place chickpeas, tahini paste, roasted garlic, lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper into the processor. Process the mixture until it becomes a smooth, creamy hummus.
- Taste the mixture and add more salt, lemon juice, or garlic to taste. Process again to blend any additional ingredients. If the texture seems too thick, add lukewarm water and continue to process until desired consistency is reached.
- Transfer hummus to a shallow bowl and create a well in the center with a spoon. Garnish with reserved chickpeas, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of paprika and minced fresh parsley. Serve with pita, crackers, or fresh vegetables for dipping.
Nutrition
Delicious recipe! Even though I got so distracted by also adding fresh chilli pepper that I forgot to add the tahini.
Hi, i just wanted to give a shout out to this cook’s excellent recipes. So far i have made the falafel, the hummus and the tahini dressing and all are fantastically delicious. Thanks and well done ??. Saludos
Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful! The best hummus I’ve ever made.
Taking the skins off made such a difference to the consistency; and just to add that baking powder works equally as well as soda (i bought the wrong product and simply hoped for the best!)
Thanks
Love your recipes, easy and fresh. Also like how you post the nutritional information, that’s definitely a big plus.
Thank you for sharing your recipes, I think this is one of the best websites I’ve visited
Hi Tori, thank you for sharing so beatifully! I would like to make hummus, but my son has a severe allergy to Sesame seed oil, what would you recommend as a substitute? Would simple extra virgin olive oil work?
Hi Gema – do you mean tahini? If you omit the tahini it won’t taste the same, but you can simply leave it out and it will still taste good, just different. You may need a little more water to achieve a smooth texture.
Is it 3.5 cups of chickpeas, soaked and cooked, or 3.5 cups of soaked and cooked chickpeas?
Put another way, do you measure the chickpeas before or after soaking and cooking?
Just wanted to clarify.
Measure them after soaking and cooking.
This looks delicious. I can’t wait to try it. I was looking for a recipe for foul (beans) and found your site. A restaurant in our neighborhood closed and I miss this dish. Their version was simple, but so flavorful. It was just beans with herbs and a drizzle of olive oil. I could eat it every day.
Often simple food is the most delicious! 🙂 Happy you’re here.
So excited to try this out in the afternoon. Did all the soaking last nite as I was planning to make hummus and falafels today and bumped into your delightful looking recipe.
Will let you knew how it turns out ❤️
My first time reading your recipe’s. The Feta, Watermelon and mint were the eye catchers. Can’t wait to try it. This Classic Hummus is the 2nd. Your photo’s are very well done and explanations are easy to follow. Looking forward to the wonderful taste and experience. Thank you
This is the first hummus recipe that has worked for me. Removing the outer shell of the cooked chickpeas definitely yields a creamier texture. Thanks for posting this and so many other recipes, especially the vegetarian ones.
You’re welcome Mary Anne! Happy you liked it. 🙂
In the video, you show adding baking soda to the chick peas in a pan on a stove and mixing well, but you do not say how much heat or if heat is even used.
Also, what about steaming chick peas instead of cooking them in water? Have you tried this method of cooking chick peas? I read that steaming chick peas makes them taste nuttier.
Thanks for your wonderful site and all of the terrific recipes!!!!!
Hi Jennifer, read through the instructions of the recipe for details on the heating of the chickpeas in the pan (yes they should be heated). I have never tried steaming the chickpeas. Glad you’re enjoying the site!
The best hummus recipe I’ve ever tried! I’ve tried many, and always been a little disappointed. Perhaps the balance of ingredients wasn’t quite correct, but you’ve nailed it!
I did need to add approx 1/2 cup of water (otherwise too dry).
I’d never “skinned” my chickpeas before. So perhaps that also helped make the difference. But that would affect texture rather than taste?
I always add lemon zest, so this was the only addition I made, and my preference is for a tad more lemon, but otherwise perfect!
Skinning the chickpeas definitely helps with texture. I did work hard to achieve the right balance of flavors here, really glad you like it!
I didn’t have the tahini paste so I used sesame oil, about a tablespoon, and I added some onion powder and half a red pepper. It gave it more flavor.
I don’t have a food processor, so I just use a potato masher. Like my mashed potatoes, it’s just as good but not as creamy as it would be if I went electronic. Ever since I went through Hurricane Ike and a subsequent 2 week electricity outage, I try to go manual as much as possible. I do use a blender to make toum, however.
Lately I’ve been picking up the Oasis brand hummus once in awhile because it’s the only brand around here that doesn’t have citric acid, which I’m allergic to. I have to say, it tastes better than my homemade. It sort of tastes like the garbanzos have been roasted. Is that a possibility? Or are they just a different variety of garbanzos than I get locally? It just seems more flavorful.
Some years ago I was at a party where there was a homemade hummus that was brought by a Middle Eastern woman. It was the best I’d ever had and so silky, creamy, smooth. Yum! So I decided to try peeling the chickpeas to see if that was her secret. I started out doing it one at a time but quickly dropped that! I put them into a large bowl set into my kitchen sink and filled the bowl with water. I put my hands into the water and gently rubbed the beans and all the skins came off and rose to the surface. Then I skimmed them off, dumped the water and did it again a couple of times until there were no more skins. Similar to your method, but quicker … no baking soda, no heating. And, of course, it was the secret to silky hummus.
Hi Tori,
All of your recipes look amazing, I’ve been wanting to learn how to make falafel for a long time and I love the fact that you use roasted garlic for the hummus.
I was wondering if you have a recipe on how to make tahini paste?
I live in Mexico and its a bit hard to find them in stores, besides that they are way too expensive, and I saw you wrote on how good it is to make your own.
I would really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Hi Astrid– I make tahini sauce, but I don’t make tahini paste from scratch. Here is the link to the sauce, and I will keep homemade paste in mind for a future post! https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/tahini-sauce/
Hello Tori,
I decided to bypass the first four steps by purchasing precooked chick peas (hummus) that are already peeled (skinless). The skinless chick peas are a bit pricey, but cuts down on the time and labor significantly. For me, it was really worth it.
I followed the rest of your recipe and everything turned out very delicious. This recipe is for sure a keeper in my household. Thank you for all the lovely recipes on your webpage. I pray to God to give all the energy to keep publishing these lovely recipes.
Thanks Steve! So happy you’re enjoying the recipes. 🙂
Good recipe, Tori.
Matches mine, almost, except for the parsley. I skin my chick peas one-by-one. Laborious, I’ll admit. Still I used to consider it time well spent. I may try the baking soda next time. Thanx for the tip.
I enjoy your recipes. So do my family and friends.
God Bless
So happy to hear you enjoy the recipes! Try the baking soda trick, I think you’ll be amazed.
You are a very talented cook and writer. I have collected over 6k cookbooks over my 75 years and you do have a special way of making me hungry.
Thanks, Tori.
Bob
Thank you Bob!
Many thanks of the baking soda trick for skinning chickpeas, I’ve been doing it pea by pea and can certainly attest to how long and tedious it is but the end result is so worth it.
I might add, already skinned dried chickpeas can be purchased on Maureen Abood website ( author of Rose Water & Orange blossoms ) although a wee bit pricey at $20 for two ten ounce bags. Also, there’s no option on Ms. Abood’s site for shipping to to Canada where I am so I’ve been plugging along peeling those little suckers one by one. That is… until now that I’ve read your very helpful hint! Thanks again
Glad the hint is helpful Jocelyn! It’s been driving me nuts too. I was so happy to find a workable solution!