Magical Hummus
“Either the food sends you to heaven or it doesn’t,” Ariel Rosenthal told me one afternoon as we re-created the hummus (see photo, this page) from his Tel Aviv restaurant, Hakosem, in my kitchen. Around the time I moved to Tel Aviv, Hakosem (Hebrew for “the magician”) went from local favorite to international phenomenon, complete with celebrity sightings and round-the-block lines. But if you think Hakosem would ever just rest on its laurels, you haven’t met Ariel. I have watched him personally check that each member of his multicultural staff has eaten lunch. I have listened to him validate the pithy micro critiques of a million regular customers, killing them with kindness and gin-and-tonics. I have watched him hand out falafel balls to patrons waiting patiently to order from a menu of elevated street food of staggeringly high quality. And that hummus! Almost criminally creamy, rich, and simultaneously light, it’s a miracle every time. Thankfully re-creating it isn’t that hard. First, soak the chickpeas for a full 24 hours. Next, cook them with baking soda and lots of liquid until very soft and almost soupy (you’ll come out of this recipe with extra cooked chickpeas, which you will portion out and save for future hummus batches). Third, use more tahini than you think it socially acceptable. Fourth, it is Ariel’s belief that fresh lemon juice curdles the hummus so he uses citric acid (often found in the supermarket’s canning aisle). Finally, let the hummus chill until it achieves the texture of buttercream frosting. I was skeptical, but six hours later I was eating the best hummus of my life. Magical, indeed.
Makes 3½ cups
Active time: 15 minutes
Total Time: about 30 hours (including soaking and chilling)
COOKED CHICKPEAS (Makes just over 4 liquidy cups, enough for 3 portions of hummus)
1⅓ cups dried chickpeas
1 teaspoon baking soda
HUMMUS (Enough for one 2-cup serving)
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
1½ teaspoons citric acid
1 garlic clove (optional)
1¾ cups pure tahini paste
1 cup ice water
Extra-virgin olive oil, for serving
TATBILA*
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Pinch kosher salt
½ teaspoon seeded minced jalapeño
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
FOR SERVING
Raw onion wedges
Tomato wedges
Soak and cook the chickpeas: Place the chickpeas in a bowl, cover with 4 inches of water (the chickpeas absorb at least their own weight in water) and soak in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Drain the chickpeas well, place them in a medium saucepan, cover them with about 2 inches (6 cups) of water and the baking soda, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, skimming off the foam and making sure the water is always in motion.
After about 20 minutes, test a chickpea—if it’s cooked through but not mushy, remove about ¼ cup of the chickpeas to save for your finished hummus. Then keep cooking the rest of the chickpeas until the water is very cloudy and gelatinous and the chickpeas look like they’re sort of disintegrated, another 45 to 55 minutes (this timing can vary; you’ll have to use your intuition a bit).
Cool the chickpeas in their liquid; you will end up with about 4 cups total. At this point, you can individually portion out three 1⅓-cup portions of the cooked chickpeas (about 1 cup chickpeas and ⅓ cup liquid), in sandwich-sized plastic bags, lay flat, and freeze, so you have little packets of cooked chickpeas whenever you’re ready for hummus.
Make the hummus: Place one of the 1⅓-cup portions of cooked chickpeas in the bowl of a food processor with the salt and citric acid (and garlic if using). Process until very smooth, about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl if necessary. With the processor still running, drizzle in half the tahini and water and process until very smooth, 1 more minute. Drizzle in the remaining tahini and water until very smooth and creamy (it should be the texture of warm buttercream frosting), 1 minute. Transfer to an airtight container and let it firm up for at least 4 hours and up to 8 hours.
Make the tatbila: In a small bowl combine the lemon juice, salt, jalapeño, and garlic.
To serve, spread the hummus on a plate and garnish with some cooked chickpeas and olive oil. Serve with onion and tomato wedges, pickles, schug, and tatbila. Hummus will keep, stored in an airtight container in the fridge, for up to 2 days.
Quick and Easy Hummus
When you don’t have the time to soak and cook, hummus made with canned chickpeas does the trick. This one is garlicky and lemony to the max. There’s no shame in this super creamy version, which you can get on the table in 15 minutes flat.
Makes about 3 cups
Active Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
HUMMUS
Two 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained, ¾ cup liquid reserved
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup pure tahini paste
⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more if you like very lemony hummus
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
Extra-virgin olive oil and smoked paprika, for serving
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the chickpeas with ½ cup of the reserved chickpea liquid, the garlic, tahini, lemon juice, and salt and process until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes depending on the strength of your processor and how creamy you want the hummus to be. Add more of the reserved chickpea liquid as needed to reach the consistency you want, and season with more salt to taste.
*Tatbila is a traditional Arabic condiment, laced with lemon, garlic, and chilies, that cuts the richness of the hummus.
A Tale of Two Chickpeas
Like the sesame seed and the eggplant, the chickpea holds pride of place among Israeli staple ingredients. Not only does it power hummus, that most central staple of local cuisine, but it adds heft and substance (not to mention protein) to soups like Harira (for my interpretation, see Chickpea and Spinach Harira) and as a filling in a hearty eggplant salad (Sabich Fattoush). The best hummusiyot (hummus joints) seek out the smallest varieties (above, left). The tiniest and most popular chickpeas for hummus are imported from Bulgaria, but there is also another small variety, called Hadas, grown locally in smaller quantities. Their thinner skins melt away when cooking, resulting in a creamier finished product. Though Hadas and other tiny chickpeas generally aren’t available abroad, the next time you’re in Israel (or Bulgaria, for that matter), pick up a bag to up your hummus game. That being said, the more common Mexican garbanzo bean you’ll likely be using makes great hummus, too. Using baking soda and cooking the chickpeas for a long time, like Ariel Rosenthal from Hakosem recommends, becomes extra important.
