I’ve found that the more cumin, the better.
Chickpeas, garlic, olive oil, tahini, salt, cumin, lemon juice.
I make a Weight Watchers “Core” version with chickpeas, fat free yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, and cilantro. Some cumin sounds like a good idea. And salt, of course.
I don’t remember where I got the cilantro idea, but it’s BRILLIANT!
My recipe for perfect and very easy hummus:
Drain 1 can chick peas - but retain the brine. Tip peas into blender. Add 1 heaping tbsp of tahini, 3-4 tsps cumin, juice of 1 lemon. Whizz, drizzling in olive oil. Taste and season with salt, then blend again adding small amounts of the brine to get to your desired texture. (I don’t use garlic because I find the varieties we get here overwhelming when raw.)
Pour into a bowl, dust with cumin, garnish with thin slices of lemon.
Unlike Mrs. Plant, I prefer sesame oil to tahini; Mrs. Plant likes it runny, and I like it thick. Cumin, and some curry powder. In the pita I add mild ring peppers, cucumber, tomato and green onions. Felalfel (sp) seems to cook best for me with cheap oil.
You can make runny hummus with tahini. I’ve done so by accident, forgot to drain the water from my garbanzos once.
Hold on a sec, you prefer sesame oil and like it thick? 
Yeah, but I’m a convert. I also hate gefilte fish and matzha ball soup.
My understanding was that everyone hates gefilte fish.
Mrs. Plant uses some white thin, runny paste labeled Tahini. Maybe we’re talking different ingredients rather than different cultural backgrounds. Leo’s Greek castle, as far as I know the only place you can get falafel in Little Rock, gives you a little pool of this runny stuff to use as you will.
My step daughter at nine loved gefilte fish and chocolate milk.
They problably ground their own sesame seeds, resulting in more oil in their tahini than in stuff found in stores.
It is store bought, in a can with a pry off lid like enamel paint. It looks like white enamel paint come to think of it.
That is odd. Tahini is, by definition, ground sesame seeds; the brand I use is only semi-runny. Like an extra thick shake.
I hate tahini (please don’t kill me), so I normally make my hummus without it: chick peas, lots of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic (if I’m working from home) and spices. However, tahini-less hummus tastes like crap if the chick peas are out of a can - I suspect the tahini normally masks the can taste. If it’s made from freshly cooked peas, though, it’s great.
So, I could just ground up some of the sesame seeds I’ve got to make tahini? Or is there more to it than that?
My hummus is fairly traditional: chick peas, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, parsley.
The best store-bought hummus I’ve ever had (and the one I buy regularly) is Joseph’s (local to NE) brand Roasted Vegetable. Checking the ingredients, I find canola oil instead of olive oil but here’s the key: the roasted vegetables consist of roasted garlic, roasted Anaheim peppers, roasted red peppers and jalapenos. It has heat enough to notice, but not enough to disturb my rather timid palate.
Next time I make my own, I’ll add in their roasted variety of peppers and also roast my garlic.
I love hummus. I also make a yummy roasted garlic/white bean dip. Will post the recipe if anyone is interested.
So is hummus supposed to be runny or pasty? (Dear me, I hope I haven’t started another Toilet Paper: Over or Under the Roll controversy.)
My hummus is based off a recipe in The Moosewood Cookbook. It’s something like this:
Mix these ingredients in a food processor:
-3 or so cloves garlic
-2 or so scallions, broken into big pieces
-A bigass handful of parsley
-A dash of cayenne
-A dash of cumin
Process that until it’s done fine.
Add:
-1 can garbanzo beans, drained
-Juice from 1/2 lemon
-Dash of tamari or soy sauce
Process that until it’s tasty-looking.
Add:
-1 Giganto spoonful tahini
-A little bit of olive oil
Process until it’s delicious. Taste it and add any non-chunky ingredient to adjust taste (i.e., spices, tamari, tahini, lemon juice, salt, pepper, whatever).
It comes out speckled green, and totally delicious. I love it!
Daniel
Every batch of hummus is as individual as every batch of chili or spaghetti sauce. I vary the proportions of the main ingredients–chick peas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil–depending on the consistency and flavor I want. Sometimes you want a thinner, dippier mix: more tahini. Sometimes you want chunky: more chick peas. Etc.
As long as you have those five main ingredients, experiment with proportions, find your own personal recipe.
Doesn’t the title- hummus bi tahini- mean chickpeas with tahini? I’ve seen recipes for it in middle eastern cookbooks that have the same basic ingredients, but don’t grind up the chickpeas. Haven’t tried it.
Does anyone know why Sabra brand hummus is so much better than mine? I make okay hummus, but theirs is perfect.
Theoretically. It’s the only ingredient listed on the jar I have.
They just want it that much more.