Hummus

Hummus is a glorious dip, which is well suited to dehydration and backpacking before the addition of oil. It will save any lunch.

Makes 2 portions

Ingredients

  • 250g cooked chickpeas
  • 1tsp tahini
  • 1/2 lemon for its juice
  • fresh garlic
  • salt
  • pepper
  • sumac
  • olive oil

For the chickpeas:

Cooking your own chickpeas really makes a difference. If you have the time, presoak them over night, or put them directly in the pressure cooker for 10min with water and lots of salt, aim for mediterranean seawater.

The actual cooking comes after. Drain them, rinse them, and put them in a pressure cooker, or if you have time in a pot (for me terracotta pots work really well with legumes). Remember to add some whole garlic cloves and laurel leaves (I use one of each). In a pressure cooker they will take 45 min, in a pot they will take 1h30min. Add salt only when they are done, and leave them be for a little while. You should be able to squish them between your fingers. Keep the cooking water!

If you have canned chickpeas, and not a lot of time, this is where you start.

Hummus:

To make the hummus, blend the chickpeas while adding some of the lemon juice. Be careful: while delicious and refreshing, it can be overpowering. Add it slowly and taste often. If you are having trouble blending the chickpeas, add some of the aquafaba (the water from the cooked chickpeas), but be careful. You can easily make the hummus too soft.

Once it is blended to a smooth or more chunky cream, to your liking, add salt, garlic paste (just squished garlic, I use 1/5 of a clove), and tahini (or just roasted sesame powder if dehydrating). Make your own Tahini.

Distribute artistically in a bowl, so that a pool of olive oil can be formed on top, and add as much olive oil as you feel is enough.

Sprinkle with delicious sumac, and enjoy spread over some toasted bread.

Note

This recipe works great for a backpacking meal: it does not require cooking, and can be very calorie efficient with the addition of oil.

You can dehydrate the hummus if no oil has been added. The oil goes slightly rancid during the dehydration and storage process, and is best added later. You can add everything else, including the tahini, lemon, garlic, sumac, etc.

Spread the hummus thinly over some parchment paper or something fancier if you own a dehydrator, and dehydrate at 50°C until crumbly (it takes 2-3h for me).

Once dry, crumble to a powder by blending or even just crushing the dehydrated hummus.

To rehydrate, just add a little bit of room temperature water. Start with a 2:1 hummus to water volume ratio, and adjust later. It should rehydrate in 5 minutes.

Section author: Davide