We eat a lot of hummus in our house — on wraps or pitas as part of a sandwich or as a dip for cut veggies and crackers as a way to keep the hunger away. But lately, my tried-and-true recipe was getting some disapproval at the table. So I began the search for a new favorite recipe. We tried version after version, switching up the tahini type, sometimes making it in a food processor and sometimes in a blender. Then I began to shake up the type of beans we were using. That turned out to be the secret. Black-eyed peas are a little less starchy, making the hummus a little lighter. I stumbled this recipe as I was reading Michael Twitty’s amazing book The Cooking Gene. I highly recommend you pick it up and read it cover to cover. In the meantime, I’ll share my new favorite hummus, which swaps chickpeas for black-eyed peas and ups the spices a la Twitty.
Ingredients
- 1-3 cloves of garlic (depending on the size of the clove and your taste)
- 1 tsp. fine sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 20 ounces cooked chick peas (start with 1 cup dried peas; you may have some left over to mix into a salad)
- 1 cup reserved liquid (I usually only use about half-a-cup but it’s good to have extra at the start.)
- 4 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp. tahini
- a sprinkle of paprika for garnish, optional
Instructions
- In a food processor, grind the garlic with the salt and pepper.
- Pour chick peas into the processor. Chop and mix, scraping down the sides to make sure all chick peas are cut into small pieces.
- Pour in the lemon juice and spoon in the tahini. Blend until well mixed.
- Slowly pour in the reserved liquid while processing. Stop when the hummus is creamy and the consistency you like. Stop the processor to check before adding the whole cup of liquid. Add water if you need to.
- Transfer the hummus to a medium serving bowl. Sprinkle with paprika if you like.