Abigail Emily's Hummus

I make the smoothest, creamiest hummus outside of Lebanon. Bidding starts now for my hot tips. OK! I've been making hummus since I was like five years old and I've tested every tip I've ever found. Here are the best ones. It seems a faff but it doesn't take long and it's worth it.

Great

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Tip 1: you can use canned chickpeas BUT not straight from the tin. Rinse them, then put them in a pan covered with cold water, add half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, and boil them gently for 20 minutes until the skins are coming off and they are very very soft. Drain them and rinse gently in cold water.

Step 2

If you can be arsed put them in a bowl of cold water and remove as many of the skins as you can. A big slotted spoon is good for this. BUT I often don’t bother with this bit any more, I just boil them very soft, I also use a high powered blender which helps break them down.

Step 3

Tip 2: the garlic tip! Use loads. LOADS. A whole bulb for a can of chickpeas. BUT here's the trick - blend the peeled cloves with the lemon juice (about 60ml, fresh ideally), then let it sit for 10-20 minutes. The acid takes the bitter sting out of the garlic. Push the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to remove as many lumps as possible. You'll get garlic scented lemon juice.( If you like the bitter tang of raw garlic or are in a rush, you can opt out of letting it sit and just throw them in whole with the lemon and tahini, but only use a couple of cloves in this case, or it will be WILD)

Step 4

Put quite a lot of tahini in the blender (about half a jar per tin of chickpeas) and add in the garlicky lemon juice. Blend like mad. It will stiffen up. After a few minutes add a few tablespoons of iced water or ice cubes, and blend the mixture until it’s gone pale, creamy, smooth and fluffy.

Step 5

Then throw in the soft chickpeas and blend like fuck for several minutes. Add plenty of salt. Cumin if you want. Keep blending until you nearly blow up your food processor.

Step 6

If you need to loosen it, use ice cold water (I couldn't use actual) ice because my blender can't handle it). I don't know why, but it lightens and smooths out the mixture so it's waaaay creamier than if you just use liquid.

Step 7

Make it slightly more liquid than you want. It will firm up in the fridge. I don't normally put olive oil in the mixture, but I do like it on top.