making houmous

[eeky]

thinking of trying this tomorrow and have only done it a couple of times before a long time ago.

I have tinned chickpeas, dried chickpeas, tahini, lemons , garlic and olive oil.

Firstly adore the Israeli kosher houmous you can buy in waitrose (can't remember brand, ?begins with Y). It comes with whole chickpeas and pine nuts in a little puddle of olive oil in the middle and is delicious - not at all grainy like most I've tried, ultra smooth and not too garlicky. Would like to imitate this.

Also not keen on masses of raw garlic as usual recipes; has anyone tried with roasted garlic which may be milder and sweeter? Would like to give this to 11m old dd so don't want it too strong to begin with.

Anyone got any good tips? btw have tried putting yogurt in before and really not keen on this.

Lots of lemon and enough salt imo. I use a mini food processor, 1 tin chickpeas, tiny blob tahini (too bitter for me) 1 garlic clove, most of a lemon, and some olive oil, salt and keep tasting till its right. May need water to get right consistency.

Really nice on toast.

My toddlers liked strong tastes - black olives etc.

I made it for the first time recently and posted on here cos it was too thick and I didn't want to add any more oil or lemon. I added some stock to thin it down and it was fine.

With pine nuts and roasted garlic sounds yummy - I'll have to get the ingredients and give it a go.

I am the self-proclaimed houmous queen and suggest that to get it really smooth, you need extra water (pref boiling from kettle), a good Magimix-type food processor, and patience. Keep stopping it and scraping down the sides. Haven't tried with roasted garlic, but if you're unsure about vast quantities of raw, you could always limit yourself to just half a clove.

Friends of ours make a caramelised onion houmous without garlic, which is much sweeter.

Will definitely second loggedout's recommendation of putting in enough salt, notwithstanding the warnings about toddlers and salt.

My children have developed a taste for lemon and coriander houmous, which is the basic recipe plus the lemon zest, another half a lemon's worth of juice and a decent handful of fresh coriander. I'm even wondering whether if I put enough black pepper in this, I could dispense with the garlic altogether, which might make it less of an antisocial lunchbox choice.