Somewhere around 2001 I was introduced to hummus by a close friend. It was at a little Dallas hole in the wall called Ali Baba. My mind was instantly blown. Ultra smooth, creamy like good icing, with a good amount of garlicky zing, and a touch of lemony freshness, beans cooked in such a way as to bring out a beautiful nuttiness that ties it all together… My goodness! True love! We have found just a scant few awesome hummus creation contenders over the years. Al Amir on Greenville Ave. in Dallas is solid. Fadi’s, a small mediterranean cuisine chain in DFW to a lesser extent, theirs is GOOD, but not FABULOUS… But honestly, those were the only few divine versions of hummus we’ve found around here, and I try the stuff everywhere I go. I’m sure there are lots in other areas I haven’t spent much time in, but in my book, nothing beat Ali Baba though, at least at the time…
Since then, I have been trying to make something comparable to that greatness. For the first 10 years I worked at it, I literally couldn’t even eat what I was making. Most recipes I found were lame slapdash knockoffs at best. I found ideas anywhere I could attempting to improve the slopfest. I looked in books, I talked to restaurant owners, I scoured the net, I read about food science, I experimented with my own ideas, I watched with a hawkeye for new possible ingredients everywhere and anywhere, it seemed there would be no end to it.
Right around 2015, I started to make hummus that was not only edible, it was GOOD. By 2016, if you tried my hummus, you would want more in the near future, you would ask for the recipe, and I would tell you everything I knew (usually information overload!) about making great hummus so you could do it yourself. A minor, and healthy addiction would begin!
I made this site, to help spread this wonderful staple of healthy living a little farther around the world. A lot of research and a lot of love went into this over the years, and I sincerely hope it makes your life, and your family’s, just a little more yummy. Enough backstory, let’s make Soul Hummus!
INGREDIENTS
There aren’t many ingredients in Soul Hummus, but their quality is integral. Cut corners on this, and you’re cutting corners on it’s greatness. Point blank. Obviously we all have limitations due to locale and finances, so just do the best you can, and you’ll still be making Soul Hummus! 😉
Garbanzo Beans – 1 cup dry
This is the bulk of the dish. If you use canned, your result will not be Soul Hummus. Period. No excuses on this one, dry beans are a touch more work, infinitely better tasting. The canned ones also carry extra taste that we do not want, from the preservatives. Not good, don’t do it. Please. There are a lot of places to source your beans. The two easiest options I find are, your local grocery store (We use Kroger out here in the DFW area of Texas) and Indian grocery stores. In standard grocery stores, you’ll find smaller bags that are a little more expensive, but they will work great. I prefer the Indian grocer, because you can get greater volumes easily, and it is the most cost economical. The packaging isn’t fancy, but we can care less about that, as long as our beans are top notch, right? Indian cooking uses a LOT of these beans in plenty of dishes, as there is a lot of vegetarianism in the culture, and it’s a great source of protein. This translates to fast turnover of product, and means you are getting fresh beans EVERY – SINGLE – TIME. And this is DEFINITELY Soul Hummus. Takeaway: Good beans are integral.
Tahini – 1/2 cup
The quality of the tahini is honestly even more important than the quality of the beans. It will affect the taste dramatically. You will see this written as both Tahini or Tahina, but it’s the same exact thing. Alwadi is my absolute favorite so far, it is consistent and fabulous, I could literally eat it with a spoon all day long! 🙂 Sometimes you can find this brand at the regular grocer, but I consistently find it at the Indian grocery stores. The big grocer usually has at least one type of tahini. It is the foundation of your flavor, so don’t kid around on this one. Lots of people like Soom tahini, and I agree, it’s good, but it’s a little expensive, and I can only find it online. It’s equal to Alwadi from my perspective, and they have it at Amazon.
Garlic – 1/2 bulb
This one is easy. Fresh as you can get, any garlic will do that I’ve found, except elephant garlic, it’s just too mild for our purpose. Once again, if you use pre-minced stuff in a jar, you are not making Soul Hummus! 🙂 Plus, you’re not going to have to do any work to process this, it’s so simple, you’ll see.
Lemon Juice – A touch more than 1/2 cup
Same rules apply, please use fresh lemons, it’s the only way. Bottled? No Soul Hummus. lol Seriously though, use fresh if you can. Often juicing lemons, you’ll find you wind up with a little more than 1/2 cup. Juice them a half lemon at a time, and when you go over, it’ll never be a problem.
Salt – 1 tsp
This one is pretty loose, any salt will do. I generally use himalayan pink salt as first choice, sea salt is second, but that’s just my general kitchen preference.
Baking Soda – 2 heaping tsp
This one’s also easy, I’ve always used Arm & Hammer, but I’m sure any will do. Don’t try to do without this, this one is a major key to the texture and consistency of Soul Hummus. It causes a chemical change in our beans that is necessary at two different stages. Super secret sauce right here. People always ask “How can you POSSIBLY get this to be this creamy, you’re skinning the beans aren’t you?!” Baking soda is the answer. I’ve tried shucking the beans, it’s insane, wastes so much material and time, and doesn’t work the way this does. Trust me, I spent about 6 months shucking beans and never hit the magic, and I mourned all the shucking time wasted that I could have spent playing guitar.
The Cleanest, and Most Pure Water You Can Find
I know right? Silly to have to list in the ingredients, but really, use the best you can. I have Ozarka water delivered in 5 gallon bottles I use for almost everything. I have really sensitive taste, I can easily tell the difference between good filtered water and tap water every time. Most tap water tastes not so great. I’ve tasted lots of water from reverse osmosis systems, it’s usually fabulous. Many bottled waters, like Nestle, are even more miserable than tap water. This is one of those choices that gets you that last 3% of perfection, so don’t sweat it if you’re using tap and it doesn’t bother you, just realize, some people can really taste the difference. You’re soaking the beans in this overnight, if the water has some taste going on, it’s going to transfer.
GARNISH AND OPTIONS
Sumac – 1 tsp
I don’t really consider Sumac to be optional in Soul Hummus, it is also one of the most talked about portions of the dish. It’s a citrusy spice made from the ground fruit of the sumac plant. It is a wonderful and exotic spice that is not overbearing at all. People usually fight to get it from the garnish on top of a fresh made bowl of hummus! I can almost promise you you will love it. It used in middle eastern cooking often, I also find this at the Indian grocer, it comes in a little resealable package and is very inexpensive. Please round out the love in your Soul Hummus and try it! 🙂
Olive Oil
You generally don’t find top shelf hummus without some really good olive oil drizzled on top. Do your research, and find a good brand you love, there are lots of expensive sub-par fakes out there. If you’re just getting started with vegan / vegetarian cooking, you’ll use it for all kinds of stuff, so don’t stress about getting the good stuff, you’ll use it, and it’s good for you. In general, if it tastes kind of like old cardboard, it’s trash. Good olive oil will give you a warm joy on tasting. lol 🙂
Pita
Lots of variation out there, I tend to find the best at Sprouts. The stuff at the regular grocery store works too, but it’s not as authentic. I prefer it slightly on the thin side, but this is all totally preference. In a pinch, toasted thinly sliced bagel chips works great. Your call on this, you can still call it Soul Hummus regardless of what you put it on! 🙂
White Onion
For me, perfection is a little white onion, wrapped in a piece of pita, dunked in a perfect mix of hummus, olive oil, and sumac. Ok, now I’m hungry… Get a medium sized one, cut it in half, peel it, and then do 1/4 inch slices. For – the – win. If you really wanna get authentic, toss them with a tsp of sumac, and prepare yourself for ecstatic taste buds.
Parsley
From a spice jar, fresh, it’s all good. It’s a nice garnish, and gives a little more color to the top to help presentation. A little goes a long way, don’t get nuts with this one.
TOOLS
Strong Blender or Food Processor
You’re not making Soul Hummus without this one. I wish you could. Years of my early experimentation were ignorantly with an old lame food processor, I just didn’t know better. But you do now, no excuses! I do believe a blender works better than a food processor, I think it has to do with space / blade volume ratio. I got an absolutely wonderful powerful little Ninja with multiple attachments, it has both the food processor and blender among others, and it was critical in making this process repeatedly consistent.
Large Strainer
You gotta strain those beans after we cook’em. Please don’t forget that you have to save some liquid from it, just put a glass underneath, and it will be way more than enough, you’re only gonna need a few tablespoons. I’m telling you now, and I will tell you a few more times, because it’s really easy to forget and then repeat a bunch of curse words over your sink as you’ve already sent the final touches on getting your hummus consistency correct, out to the water processing plant.
Small Fine Mesh Strainer
This is used to get garlic infused lemon juice out of this sludgy concoction we’re going to make here in a bit. I think the one I have is for making drinks. As long as the screen is pretty fine, it’ll work out. I bet cheesecloth would work too, but I have never tried it yet.
Lemon Juicer
This one is obvious, use what works. I have one that has a built in measuring cup, so as I’m squeezing, I can see right away how much more I need, I find this really helpful, but as long as you can squeeze then measure, it doesn’t matter.
That’s it! Got all your stuff?! Ready to rock!? Well hold on to your soul, we’re about to SOUL HUMMUS!!!
THE SOUL HUMMUS PROCEDURE
- THE NIGHT BEFORE – Rinse the beans (tap water is fine for this) and pick out any discolored beans, or anything else you see that doesn’t look like beans! (This shouldn’t be often, if it is, find another bean source!) Put the beans, and 1 heaping tsp of baking soda into a wide bowl, and fill it with water at least 1.5 inches above the beans.
If you find your beans are above the water in the morning, use a little more each time you try this, until that doesn’t happen, because it really depends on the size and shape of the bowl. Swirl it around a little bit. Cover tightly, and let sit for at least 8 hours, around 10-12 are optimal. - Rinse and strain the beans again (once again, tap water is fine) and throw them in a large pot, with the other heaping tsp of baking soda. Fill with water to about 1.5 inches above the beans. Put them on medium heat just until they start boiling, and then immediately lower the heat as low as it will go without it being off. Now we are going to boil the death out of these beans, this is part 2 of the secret sauce. You have two options here. The first is just boil them for 2 hours, and you can be sure they will be set to get that magical consistency. If you are in a rush, you can start checking them at the hour point, to see if they easily squish between your fingers if you squeeze them. My recommendation is do them for 2 hours the first time, so you know what perfect Soul Hummus is like. Then you can gradually gauge to see what the beans feel like when they are ready. If you forget to lower it, and leave them on that rolling boil for a long time, the beans will totally fall apart, and results are really mixed. Sometimes it gets too nutty, sometimes it’s ok. Experience will be your teacher here.
- While those protein packed puppies are being boiled, you are going to prepare your garlic infused lemon juice. The longer this sits, the better it is, so do it right away so it can sit the whole time your beans are being prepared. Roughly clean the garlic, and throw it in the blender.
You don’t need to skin it all the way, just do the best you can with your hands quickly.
The strainer will deal with it, so don’t stress. Toss the salt and lemon juice in, and blend it for about 10 seconds, scrape it down, and blend one more time. Now just let it sit, for a MINIMUM of 20 minutes. We gotta give that yummy garlic time to buddy up with that lemon juice. - Put the small strainer over a glass (or whatever your situation calls for, you just need to use a finer strainer) and scrape the lemony sludge into it. You may need to press it through and work it a bit, that’s fine. In the end you wind up with cloudy lemon garlic juice. There are a few reasons we’re doing this in this way. The first is that garlic rots really fast. This is going to give more lifespan to your hummus. The second is that the garlic ratio is easy to muck up. This procedure makes it mostly foolproof. Clean your blender, and put this lemon mixture back in it.
- Add the tahini to the blender and give a quick blend just to get it mixed up with the lemon juice mixture. Strain the finished beans over a cup, and save around a cup of the liquid, DON’T FORGET. Dump the beans into the blender. Now blend the dickens out of it, until it has the smoothness of well made icing. You should have NO lumps or chunks or anything of the sort. If you do, blend it more. With my Ninja it takes two one minute sessions on Food Puree, but every device is going to be different. Taste it, when your eyes stop rolling, it’s time for the artistic steps, as much as I’ve tried to make this as scientific and repeatable as humanly possible…
- Put 2 tbsp of the bean liquid into the hummus and blend again. Do you like the consistency? Then you’re done with that. If you find it’s still too thick for your taste, add one tbsp at a time of the bean water until it’s where you’d like it. Remember if you chill it, it will firm up a tad from that as well.
- Add salt, lemon juice, and tahini, to taste. This is the hard part to learn to get right. Trial and error and your own tastes are going to dictate what happens here. You will usually not need more tahini, if you do like more, you can make it a regular part of your recipe. I like it all the way up to 2/3 cup, the more you use, the more tahini flavor you have obviously, and the more silky it gets. Salt and lemon are to your taste, you have to play around with it. The amounts I give you by default are very solid, so it shouldn’t take too much to get it right, but in the end, it IS YOUR SOUL HUMMUS! That’s why we make it at home right? 🙂
- Lots of traditionalists say hummus is to be served warm only. I think this is nonsense, my whole family loves it cold. You do what makes you happy, you’ve already cleared the hurdle to call your dish Soul Hummus. Refrigerating firms it up a bit if you like it that way. Put some in a dish, make a nice swirl design on top, then carve out a little pool in the middle to put some olive oil in. Top with olive oil, a healthy portion of sumac, and some parsley. Get as fancy as you can! Serve with pita, bagel chips, onions, bell pepper slices, and then be prepared to tell anyone you serve this to where you got the recipe from! Share the SOUL HUMMUS LOVE! lol :-).
That’s all there is to it. After you do it two or three times, it’ll get really simple, the biggest problem for me is remembering to soak the beans the night before! 😉 Much love and joy to you my friends, I truly hope you enjoyed this labor of love!
Love & Light,
Joe Hanish
By the way… if you’d like to post some comments on this recipe, put them here on this post:
Soul Hummus – The Site, The Recipe
Thanks!