Homemade hummus?

[Chepstowmonkey]

Can anyone make homemade hummus that tastes like the shop bought stuff? My dd will eat loads of the shop bought stuff but won't touch my attempts at making it. I have to admit that the shop bought stuff is a lot smoother than mine but I'm not sure what I can do to improve it.

It is not that i mind at all feeding her shop bought hummus but as I don't give it to her every meal it keeps going off in the fridge and it is a waste of money. I thought maybe if I made some homemade it might be freezable?

If your hummus is good - how do you make it?

It's incredibly simple:
Can of chickpeas, squirt of tahini (sesame paste stuff) and lemon juice to taste. Blitz in the blender.

Canned chickpeas have not been cooked long enough to make proper hummus with - it ends up gritty.

Either cook dried chickpeas from scratch until they are falling apart or cook canned ones for an additional hour. Reserve the cooking water. Put chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil in blender and blitz, dribble in cooking water until you get to the right smooth consistency.

Thank you both. I normally do it the way Ranthambore described but I don't use a blender (I use the magamix) and yes malinois my hummus is always very gritty which I suspect is what Dd objects to.

malinois - I thought I'd read that cooking tinned chickpea for ages only makes them harder. Is this not true?

I make a chickpea dip - before any purists get their knickers in a twist. I make a pulp with garlic and sea salt, add to the food processor with chickpeas and then I add a generous squeeze of Hellmans, to taste. That's it really, tahini is a sour taste and some olive oils are overpowering. If you want to make it really smooth you need to skin the chickpeas....but I'd really fight against that, what a boring task.

We eat a lot of hummus...so watching with interest...

Mine is a tin of chick peas blitzed in a magimix with a really good slug of olive oil until it is really smooth. Takes a good few minutes. If in doubt do for longer. Add garlic tahini and lemonjuice. Seaon with cumin salt and pepper.

My hoummous is tinned chickpeas, garlic, cumin, salt, lemon juice, lots of olive oil and sesame seeds ( don't like tahini). I blend it for quite a long time and serve in a dish with a good sprinkling of paprika.

I've never managed to make one that is actually as nice as shop bought stuff.

Fed up of binning my rubbish efforts.

I've added a spoonful of Greek yogurt to the blended chick peas etc and its ok still not as nice as shop brought stuff

Watching with interest

I find standard shop-bought hummus weirdly smooth and airy since I started making my own; I think I just prefer a 'chunky' texture! I make it with chickpeas, spoon of tahini, bit of lemon juice, garlic, salt, whatever spices. Whiz up a bit but not too much. Suits me.

Agree it's hard to match the texture of shop-bought hummus. You can also make a nice green version with broad beans and peas instead of chick peas.

well, since posting this I have been doing more internet research and the quality of hummus seems to be down to the quality of the chickpea (whether tinned or dried) and that makes sense to me. It may also explain why some of you manage to get away with doing what I normally do e.g. tinned chickpeas, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice in a food processor and you still have good hummus whereas mine tastes like some kind of building material.

The tinned chickpeas i have been buying from co-op are very small and very hard so maybe that is where I am going wrong. I will try it with dried chickpeas soaked overnight and then cooked and see if it makes a difference.

I shall report back after a few experiments of your suggestions. I have also found this - www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/aug/11/how-to-make-perfect-hummus -
which I thought might be of interest to those of you who are also striving to make the perfect homemade hummus......(although perhaps that is just me!)

I found adding about three times as much olive oil (not extra virgin, just the cheapy stuff) helped get a much more shop-like texture. And yes, different brands of chick pea are of varying softness. Sainsbury's did one which I think may have been organic but which was really cheap and they were very soft.

Watching with interest as have the exact same issue. My 4yo DS still reminds me to 'never make that yucky hummus again. I only like nice hummus'.

I always add about half the amount (or less if I can get away with it) of tahini. I hate the stuff but it does add a bit of flavour. I use extra virgin olive oil but about half the amount as required, lots of lemon juice. A tip I was given by a Lebanese lady was to use a couple of tablespoons of the water from the tin of chick peas. This help to blend it to a smooth paste.

She freezes it but it is so easy to make I don't bother.

I use canned chickpeas but drain and rinse them thoroughly as the stuff they are canned in gives it a weird taste in my opinion.

I add tahini (the lady who doesn't like this but adds sesame seeds?? Tahini is sesame seeds), crushed garlic, salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste and water (not oil as much healthier) and blitz in the processor until smooth (add more water if necessary.

Never had a problem with grittiness doing it this way.

Lemon zest is good too. If you cook the chick peas, reserve the water they were cooked in and add that if you need more liquid.

If you don't have tahini but do have sesame oil, a little of that adds similar flavour.

YY to lemon zest.

Chepstow - that Guardian recipe is the one I use. Felicity Cloake is awesome and she's the one that put me onto the fact that most canned chickpeas have not been cooked long enough to make hummus. And no, they don't get harder the longer you cook them - in fact if you cook them for too long they just turn into mush.

Love love love the Nigella red pepper hummus recipe and it couldn't be simpler to make. Sorry don't know how to create links but it should come up if you google. It's from the Nigella Express book.

I saw a recipe today using peanut butter in place of tahini, it looked lovely and I might give it a go, 2 tbsp peanut butter per 400g can of chickpeas.

Well, now I guess I'll just have to find some dried chickpeas! I've tried co-op and they don't sell them so it may have to wait until the weekend and I can get to a larger supermarket. I'll be back in touch after I have found chickpeas, soaked chickpeas, boiled chickpeas and then made the hummus. This whole experiment may take about a week, I reckon!

Speak soon fellow hummus lovers xxx

Sorry - I've had a name change but I am the OP!

Just wanted to report back to those of you who were interested that the Guardian recipes was indeed 'perfect'!. Went down a treat with both adults and toddlers on friday night and as it makes loads I froze it in little tubs and gave it to DD tonight for tea. She said that it was 'delicious' and even licked her plate. (I even defrosted it in the microwave).

It is a bit of a hassle to make initially - what with all the soaking and the boiling but neither take very effort it is just time I suppose. Also the liquid that is used to blend the hummus is the cooking water so guess it would be healthier and cheaper than using olive oil or yoghurt which I used to do before.

Anyway - just thought I'd report back to others whose DCs refuse to eat their hummus in favour of the shop bought stuff.

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/aug/11/how-to-make-perfect-hummus