🥙 How to make hummus

What you’ll learn

1. Put the tub backChoose Janjigian's two-can ultracreamy hummus over a supermarket tub, Kenji's dried blender bowl, or Ottolenghi's ice-water whip, and scale a first batch.Put the tub back. Tonight is two cans, baking soda, lemon-steeped garlic, and tahini last. An adult owns the pot. You taste.
2. Cook them until they fall apartSimmer canned chickpeas with baking soda until they collapse, swish the skins off in cold water, and name alkaline pH plus weak pectin as the reason skins slip.Canned is not soft enough. Baking soda raises pH. Swish the skins. A firm chickpea is a grainy hummus. Dried beans wait.
3. Tahini, lemon, garlicStir a pale tahini, steep garlic in lemon so alliinase shuts down, and add oil with the tahini rather than first.Stir the jar. Pale tahini, not dark. Garlic in lemon, then strain. Alliinase is the bite. Cumin is a pinch.
4. Blend it in the right orderProcess chickpeas and lemon-garlic before tahini so sesame proteins cannot seize the water, and stop when the paste pours like yogurt.Chickpeas first, tahini last. Yogurt-loose. Ice water and a hot blender are later. Salt, then lemon, then cumin.
5. Spread it, eat it, keep itSpread a well of oil, serve with warm pita, follow the two-hour clock, keep leftovers three to four days, and name ful and masabacha as later work.Well, oil, paprika, parsley. Warm pita. Warm water loosens a cold bowl. Two hours on the table, then three to four days cold. A grainy bowl is information.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• Andrew Janjigian, Ultracreamy Hummus, America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Illustrated, published 12 November 2019, 45 minutes, serves 8 to 10, makes about 3 cups, 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas rinsed, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 4 garlic cloves peeled then 1 tablespoon mince reserved, 1/3 cup lemon juice plus extra, 1 teaspoon table salt, 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin plus extra, 1/2 cup tahini stirred well, 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus extra, 1 tablespoon minced parsley, simmer chickpeas with baking soda and 6 cups water 20 to 25 minutes until skins float and beans are creamy, steep garlic in lemon and salt 10 minutes then strain, swish skins off in cold water 3 or 4 times about 3/4 cup skins, process lemon-garlic 1/4 cup water cumin and chickpeas 1 minute then add tahini and oil 1 minute, pourable like yogurt, refrigerate airtight up to 5 days, 30 minutes at room temperature before serving, warm water 1 tablespoon at a time to loosen, https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/12228-ultracreamy-hummus
• Andrew Janjigian, How to Get Ultracreamy Hummus at Home, America's Test Kitchen, published 3 December 2019, simmering canned chickpeas with baking soda 20 minutes lets skins come off, dried and canned equally good here, light tahini from hulled lightly roasted seeds, sesame skins as gritty as chickpea skins, heavily roasted seeds make tahini bitter, process other ingredients before tahini because its proteins absorb water and clump, 1/4 cup water then teaspoons, 2 tablespoons olive oil with the tahini so oil is not overprocessed, garlic steeped in lemon then strained is Michael Solomonov's technique, acid neutralizes alliinase, toppings from herbs and chickpeas to spiced meat, https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/1958-hummus-elevated
• J. Kenji López-Alt, The Food Lab's Science of Great Hummus / Israeli-style extra-smooth hummus, Serious Eats, updated 9 January 2026, originally March 2016, hummus Levantine and Egyptian in origin, US style lots of tahini and a touch of cumin, store-bought smooth but bland, homemade flavourful but grainy, Solomonov Zahav tahini sauce: whole unpeeled garlic blended with lemon then strained, tahini seizes then thins with water, dried chickpeas better flavour than canned, canned can be repaired by rinsing and simmering about 1 hour with aromatics, baking soda in soak and cooking water raises pH and helps beans break down, peeling one by one works but is tedious, cook until falling apart instead, Chef John Fraser at Nix: blend hot in a blender, 1/2 pound / 225 g dried chickpeas, 2 teaspoons baking soda divided, overnight soak, about 2 hours simmer, 1 1/2 cups tahini sauce, leftovers up to 1 week, alliinase converts alliin to allicin, lemon and vinegar batches mild, water batches harsh, alliinase peaks near pH 6.5 and drops in acid, lemon juice about pH 2, African Journal of Biotechnology Zhou et al. on alliinase versus pH, https://www.seriouseats.com/israeli-style-extra-smooth-hummus-recipe
• Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook, Zahav's Hummus Tehina, adapted by Melissa Clark, NYT Cooking, 1 cup dried chickpeas, 2 teaspoons baking soda, juice of 1 1/2 large lemons about 1/3 cup, 2 to 4 cloves garlic grated, 1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt, 1 cup sesame tahini, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, soak overnight with 1 teaspoon baking soda, simmer remaining teaspoon 1 to 1 1/2 hours until quite soft, overcooked chickpeas are the secret, lemon garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt sit 10 minutes then blend with tahini salt cumin and 1/3 to 2/3 cup ice water, blend warm chickpeas until ultracreamy, paprika olive oil parsley to serve, canned chickpeas acceptable, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017734-zahavs-hummus-tehina
• Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, Hummus from Jerusalem, adapted by Julia Moskin, NYT Cooking, featured 2013 from Jerusalem: A Cookbook (Ten Speed Press, 2012), 1 1/4 cups / 250 g dried chickpeas, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons / 270 g light tahini, 4 tablespoons lemon juice, 4 cloves garlic crushed, salt, 6 1/2 tablespoons / 100 ml ice-cold water, soak overnight, cook drained chickpeas with baking soda 3 minutes then add 6 1/2 cups water and simmer 20 to 40 minutes until very tender almost mushy, process to a stiff paste then add tahini lemon garlic salt and drizzle ice water about 5 minutes, rest 30 minutes under plastic wrap, refrigerate up to 2 days, pull 30 minutes before serving, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014943-hummus-from-jerusalem
• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, perishable food into the refrigerator within 2 hours or 1 hour if air is over 90°F, leftovers 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator, https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/leftovers-and-food-safety

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