homemade hummus

I've been on a huge hummus kick lately.  Ever since I decided to snack on celery and hummus while at work, I can't seem to get enough of it.  I've been trying different brands (Tribe is my favorite brand right now) and flavors, like Lemon Rosemary Focaccia, Everything, Zesty Spice & Garlic, Roasted Garlic, and Mediterranean Style. Most of the time I can get it for roughly $2.00 for an 8 oz. container, but I decided maybe it would be more economical and tastier if I made my own.

So, I set out to online find the perfect hummus recipe (of course, everyone claims their is the best so this is tough).  The recipes are all so different.  Some call for using dried chick peas, which have to be soaked, rinsed and cooked (some have more elaborate instructions, too). Some call for canned chick peas, which a lot of people were dissing.  Some call for a lot of tahini or garlic, others don't. Some don't use olive oil and others do.  So confusing. 

I ended up going with Alton Brown's recipe for my first try (and my second).  It called for canned chick peas and I thought maybe dried chick peas would give it better flavor, so I bought those instead.  They had to be soaked overnight and then cooked before I could use them.  Something I neglected to notice in the recipe is that it calls for 1/4 cup of the liquid from the canned chick peas. So, mistake #1.  Another mistake I made?  I didn't measure the cooked chick peas.  The recipe calls for 30 oz.  I wrongly assumed that a 16 oz bag of dried chick peas would produce roughly 32 oz of cooked chick peas. Since I assumed rather than measured, I tossed them all in the food processor.  It made it very difficult to blend the ingredients.  Not to mention, it totally watered down the flavor.  The result was a very bland hummus.  I thought it would be a good idea to add more salt.  I did...and ended up over salting it.  It wasn't bland anymore - it tasted like I dumped the whole salt shaker in it.  It all went in the trash.

I tried it again this weekend.  Same recipe, but with canned chick peas.  And I bought new tahini.  The tahini I used the first time had been in my fridge for...awhile.  This time the result was much better:  smooth hummus that tasted like hummus.  It was a bit salty for my taste, though.  I added some more lemon juice and that helped slightly.  Next time I think I will cut the salt in half.  I'm thinking it might taste even better if I put in the fridge and allow time for the ingredients to mingle.

Here's my hummus (made according to the recipe!):