Hummus is a dish made of chickpeas. It's has the consistency of a paste, and it's great as a meal on it's own or as a part of a nice sandwich. While the creators of 'You Don't Mess With The Zohan' took it a bit too far, us Israelis do love our hummus, and you can find many places that serve hummus was their main dish with all kinds of toppings.

In some regions of the world hummus is considered a lunch, while others eat it for breakfast. Since chickpeas are made of about 19% proteins (google it if you have doubts!!), it keeps the hunger away for a very long time. For example, after eating this specific hummus dish as a brunch, my wife and I were full for the rest of the day, and we actually skipped lunch and dinner. For this reason, people eat hummus as their breakfast and usually skip lunch afterwards (this is pretty common for construction workers).

Another common use of hummus is as a part of sandwich. One of my favorite (and most common) breakfast sandwiches is of pastrami with hummus. Other people like sandwiches with hummus and boiled eggs or an omelet, with hummus and eggplants, or just with plain hummus.

All in all, hummus is really nutritious, filling and delicious, and it makes for a great breakfast, lunch or even dinner - depending on your mood and taste. In this instructable I'll show you the basics of making hummus on your own. Hummus is easy to make, but it takes some planning ahead because you have to soak the chickpeas for a while. If you've never tried hummus, or you've never made your own, you won't regret trying it!

Total prep. time - up to 24 hours. Net work time - 45 minutes

Supplies

Ingredients:

Dried chickpeas, preferably small (about 300gr / 0.66lb).
Tahini - ground sesame seeds (about 80mL or 1/3 of a cup).
Lemon.
Ground cumin (1 teaspoon).
2 garlic cloves.
Baking soda (1 teaspoon).
Olive oil.
Salt.

Kitchen Equipment:

Cooking stove.
Food processor (or something similar).

Step 1: T - 24 Hours : Soak the Chickpeas Overnight

The work begins one day ahead of the planned meal.

Wash the chickpeas with cold water and remove anything that doesn't belong.
Add a teaspoon of baking soda (if you skip this step, cooking the chickpeas will take a really long time)
Soak the chickpeas with water. They soak in a ton of water, so make sure the water level is at least 3 times higher than the chickpeas. Note that water is going to be a big part of your dish, so I advise using filtered water for a better taste.

Tip - you should soak the chickpeas for as long as possible. But... if you're short on time, a few hours can work too.

Step 2: T - 2.5 Hours : Boil the Chickpeas

After the overnight soaking in water, wash the chickpeas in running water once again.
Pour the chickpeas into a large pot and fill with boiling water. Make sure that the water level is at least 5cm (2") higher than the chickpeas.
Add salt (about one spoon). You'll have a chance to add more later on (according to taste).

Step 3: T - 2 Hours : Take Care of Your Hummus

During the first 30 or so minutes of the cooking process, there's going to be some foam forming. Use a large cooking spoon to remove it (first GIF). After this part, you can put a lid on the pot if you like.
While the chickpeas are cooking, chickpea shells will be floating to the top. You can remove these with a large spoon (3d image). The more you remove, the smoother the hummus paste is going to be. This is not mandatory, and some people really like grainy hummus so they leave the shells in it. If you do decide to remove shells, gently stirring the pot when the chickpeas are already pretty soft will help more shells peel off.
Keep adding water when necessary, making sure the chickpeas are well covered with water at all times.

Keep on cooking for a while. Chickpeas take about 2 hours to completely soften. There's no such thing as over-cooking here. When ready, the chickpeas should squish almost like well-cooked potatoes. You should also have a murky/starchy liquid in the pot, which we'll be using later.

Heads up - If you didn't add baking soda to the water while soaking overnight - cooking will take longer than 2 hours.

Step 4: T - 30minutes : Prepare the Hummus

Stop boiling the chickpeas, and let the pot cool for about 15 minutes. Keep the cooking water! You'll need it in a second.
Put about 3 cups of cooked chickpeas (save some of the chickpeas for the plating!), ground cumin, tahini, garlic, lemon juice and about half a cup of the cooking water into a food processor.

Tip - if you boiled more chickpeas than you plan on eating in the next couple of days, you can freeze them (with some of the cooking liquid). Frozen boiled chickpeas are good for a very long time. When you feel like eating hummus again, just unfreeze them and throw in the food processor!

Step 5: T - 15 Minutes : Turn It Into Hummus!

Turn on the food processor and let it run for a minute. If it's too thick, gradually add more of the cooking water until it's a smooth paste.
Taste it! The hummus should be ready and delicious at this point. Season with more salt lemon if needed.

Almost done! We're left with plating and and that's it!

Step 6: T - 5 Minutes : Plating

Plating of hummus is more important than plating of other dishes. The toppings on a plate hummus really make a huge difference.

Put the hummus in a wide bowl.
Use a spoon to shape the hummus spread so that it has a dimple in the center (see GIF and 3rd image).
Fill the dimple with boiled chickpeas (preferably hot), pour plenty of olive oil (this is essential!) and season with some paprika or ground chili.
You can also add other toppings if you want - some people add minced meat, cooked mushrooms and so on. I like to keep it simple :)

Step 7: Time to Eat!

That's it! Hummus is most often served with warm pita bread (let me know in the comments if you want me to share a recipe for pita bread as well!), fresh salad with lots of lemon on it, pickles, eggs and more. Some people like to eat it with onions as well (fill a slice of onion with some hummus and give it a try!). Like I mentioned in the introduction, you can eat hummus as is, or as a part of a sandwich - both are great choices.

Tip - hummus is very nutritious and so bacteria like it too! (it's kind of like meat in this sense). If you have leftovers, keep it in the fridge and consume within 2-3 days.

I hope you make your own hummus, and if you do, I'd love to see your version of it! (you can click the 'I Made It' button)