my hummus is bland - why?

[iota]

made hummus for the first time today and am disappointed. It's too bland.

I made it with a can of chickpeas, drained, 2 x large dollops of tahini, 1 x teasp cumin, 3 x garlic cloves juice of 2 x lemons and a little olive oil.

have just added a roasted pepper to perk it up, but still need more oooomp.

More garlic?
or more cumin?

[RTMTMML]

A nice dash of chili

[iota]

oooh I love chilli. Might just do that.
I'm sulking in teh study and can't be bothered to cook teh rest of the stuff for Greek Night Chez Iota

[iota]

have put a little salt and pepper in it already. It's soo gutting when home-made isn't as nice as shop bought

[BubblesDeVere]

Have you tried adding some very finely chopped spring onions.

[iota]

haven't got any spring onions - have got some red onion though.

Think I'll put a couple more cloves of garlic in and a bit of chilli.

Am having Greek Salad, so lots of onion in there

[Mud]

have you tried adding a lot more oil, hummous needs lots and lots of oil

then just tip it in the bin, wander down to your local supermarket and buy a tub like the rest of us poor mortals

[WideWebWitch]

Hmm, I don't know. I've never managed to make hummus as nice as shop bought stuff. Maybe it's salt? Recipes usually tell you to put quite a bit of tahini in and I think it's nicer with less than most recipes say. You could try adding greek yoghurt, I think that's what Nigella recommends but I've never tried it. Hmm, would imagine it's worth a go though.

[WideWebWitch]

Especially if the alternative is chucking it!

[iota]

www - 4 tablespoons of tahini in it - very oily - can't take any out now can I - maybe next time

[Mud]

mine always seems 'grainy'

I say mine, I've tried it twice and then gave up and just buy it from sainsbury's now

[iota]

MUd - I'm sure I read on MN that it is easy to make your own, so I gave it a go..
might revert to buying it next time

I do make a very nice Tzadziki though

[Mud]

I've read on MN that some people eat their placenta though

[WideWebWitch]

Bet that's it, too much tahini. But nope, you can't take it out now! Next time I attempt it I think I'll add the tahini bit by bit to taste and ignore the recipe. Are you going to try the greek yog, I need to know!

[Mud]

[iota]

Mud - not sure placenta would go with my Greek theme

[Mud]

yeah, just have to keep it in the freezer till you next offal night I suppose

[Mud]

are you going to smash plates then?

[iota]

OK here's the plan

1. More garlic - I mean how big is 2 cloves - skinny ones or fat ones?
   
   
2. Greek Yoghurt
   
   
3. chilli
   
   
4. red onion
   
   by then I will have a washing up bowl full of the damn stuff

[iota]

Mud - maybe I could do bowls-of-hummus smashing instead of plates

[iota]

ha - dh is cooking now - I'm going to sink a Bacardi breezer

[juniperdewdrop]

enjoy ur breezer

did you put black pepper in it btw? may help?

[Catbert]

had same thing with own homemade hummus.

I added STACKS more garlic... STACKS! And a lot more lemon juice to offset the tahini thing...

It worked a treat!

[WideWebWitch]

Iota, I really want to know how your hummus turns out! Please report back!

[iota]

added another clove of garlic to half of it, and some Gk yoghurt and some more salt and pepper. Marginal improvement.

Still tastes too oily. Ate some with dinner, but am chucking the rest. Too much flogging a dead horse.

The rest of dinner courtesy of dh (and M&S for falafel and stuffed vines leaves) was yum