KO EN Lebanese Appetizer⏱ 80 minEdit history

Hummus (Middle Eastern Chickpea Dip)

Name: Hummus (Middle Eastern Chickpea Dip)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Lebanese
Ingredients: 250 g Chickpeas; 120 g Tahini; 60 ml Lemon juice; 2 clove Garlic; 4 tbsp Ice water; 1 tsp Salt; 0.5 tsp Ground cumin; 3 tbsp Olive oil; 1 to garnish Paprika & parsley

A classic Middle Eastern dip of chickpeas blended smooth with tahini, lemon, and garlic. Creamy, nutty, and tangy, it's drizzled with olive oil and scooped up with pita. A mezze staple loved across Lebanon and the wider Middle East and Mediterranean.

Ingredients

4servings

Chickpeas · dried, soaked overnight & boiled (or 2 cans)250 g
Tahini · sesame paste120 g
Lemon juice · about 2 lemons60 ml
Garlic2 clove
Ice water · to adjust texture & creaminess4 tbsp
Salt1 tsp
Ground cumin · optional0.5 tsp
To finish
Olive oil3 tbsp
Paprika & parsley1 to garnish

Steps

Soak the dried chickpeas overnight, then boil with a little baking soda until very soft (~1 hour). If using canned, just rinse.
⏲ 60 min
For extra smoothness, rub off the chickpea skins (optional but a big texture upgrade).
⏲ 10 min
Blend the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and salt first into a bright, creamy base.
⏲ 2 min
Add the chickpeas and blend smooth, drizzling in ice water a spoon at a time until light and fluffy.
⏲ 5 min
Taste and adjust with lemon and salt. Spread on a plate with a well in the center.
Drizzle generously with olive oil, dust with paprika and parsley (or a few whole chickpeas), and serve with pita.

Tips & Variations

Variations

Hummus bi lahm (with meat): Top with sautéed minced lamb and pine nuts.
Hummus with ful: Serve alongside stewed fava beans (ful medames).
Spicy hummus: Swirl in harissa or chili oil.
Roasted veg: Blend in roasted beet or red pepper for color and sweetness.

Tips

Other chickpea dishes use this one as the far end of a dial they deliberately stop short of. Chana masala mashes a few chickpeas for body — "a few only; mash them all and you have hummus" — and doubles crushes about a third because "that starch is the only thing thickening the sauce". Turn the dial all the way and the chickpea starch stops thickening something else and becomes the dish, which is what the rest of these tips are about.
Which is why "very soft" is a requirement and not a preference. A chickpea that still has bite purées into grit rather than cream, and the bicarbonate is doing the work soaking describes — it dissolves the pectin holding the cells together so the interior collapses. That guide also lists the costs, so rinse them after and do not carry that water forward.
The skins are the part that will not purée at all. They are cellulose, so no amount of blending turns them into the smooth phase; they stay as flecks that read on the tongue as grain. Rubbing them off is the difference between smooth and nearly smooth, and nothing else on the list substitutes for it.
The ice water is an emulsion step, not a dilution step. Tahini is roughly half fat, and cold water whipped into it with the starch already in suspension gives exactly the arrangement emulsions describes — starch physically trapping fat droplets in water. Cold keeps the paste stiff enough to shear rather than just thin, which is why it lightens instead of loosening, and it is also why the tahini and lemon are blended to a base first.
Cook the chickpeas very soft for creaminess — baking soda helps.
Removing the skins is the secret to silky hummus (a restaurant trick).
Blending with ice water lightens the color and makes it fluffy.
Tahini quality makes the dish — use fresh, well-stirred paste.
Adjust lemon, garlic, and salt to taste — balance is everything.