Delicious: Is this Australia's best hummus? Matt Preston thinks so
MATT PRESTON
Matt Preston pens a love letter, of sorts, to his favourite dip.
How do you turn chickpeas into something so deliciously satin-smooth? We’ll find out soon… but first, let’s look at how hummus has boomed over the past 10 years to become part of the weekly diet for many of us here in Australia and, indeed, around the world. In 2019, the global market for hummus was worth more than $1 billion and it was found in the fridges of a third of US homes from a comparatively negligible number only a decade or so ago. Sydney even has its own controversial hummus bar in Yoash Dvir’s Simply Hummus Bar in Darlinghurst. Controversial because Yoash is an advocate for a chunkier style of this chickpea dip. Shock, horror!
WHAT MAKES A GREAT HUMMUS?
“A very smooth and light texture, slightly aerated and not served cold. The smoothness is achieved by removing at least some of the skins. It needs to be sharp, from lemon, and rich from a good tahini,” Israel-born hummus aficionado and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi tells me from London.
It’s the way I like my hummus, too. Great hummus should never be grainy from undercooked chickpeas, or bitter from old or cheap tahini. (I’m reserving judgement on Yoash’s version until I can get to Sydney to try it.)
HOW TO MAKE AUSTRALIA’S BEST HUMMUS
There are many great examples of hummus in Australia, but the one at Melbourne’s Bar Saracen has its own fan club. Critically acclaimed, head chef Tom Sarafian sold over 300kg of the stuff over just one week in August to raise funds for the Lebanese Red Cross in Beirut.
Making his hummus is a three-day process, which starts with soaking large Ord River chickpeas with a little bicarb, rinsing the chickpeas several times, then picking out any old ones. Tom says that cooking them in a pressure cooker is the only way to ensure they are soft all the way through, and has the added benefit of persuading the skins to float off so they become easy to skim off. The skins can affect that sought-after silky texture.
The chickpeas are then blitzed hot with salt and ice is added – which Tom believes further improves the smoothness. Then the tahini. Tom only uses tahini from a Lebanese factory, Al Nakhil, but tops this first-stage hummus with a layer of Victorian Mount Zero olive oil. On the third day, the hummus is blitzed cold with lemon juice and garlic, which is added, not as crushed cloves, but rather as a traditional toum sauce. This is a white sauce with a gentle garlic flavour made by pounding loads of garlic with lemon juice, then olive oil, and finally adding iced water. This helps the toum become cloud-like. You’ll find my cheat’s toum recipe online.
HOW TO MAKE REALLY GOOD HUMMUS AT HOME
Yotam’s recipe has evolved from his 2010 cookbook Plenty, where he advised cooking water-and-bicarb-soaked chickpeas for a couple of hours. In his book Jerusalem, he recommends soaking in just the water overnight and then cooking them with a little baking soda for a couple of minutes before covering with water and cooking for about 40 minutes, or until very soft. You just skim off any scum and skins as they gather on the surface. Using baking soda at this later stage reduces that cooking time and helps break down the skins.
Yotam also adds 90g of tahini for about every 200g of softened chickpeas, adding the lemon juice, garlic and a little olive oil to the processor at the same time. His final trick is slowly drizzling in iced water while processing slowly for up to five minutes to get the hummus satin-smooth.
HOW TO MAKE CHEAT’S HUMMUS
If you can’t be pfaffed to wait overnight, you’ll need to use canned chickpeas. Once you rinse and drain them, I’d suggest taking the time to remove the skins by rubbing your chickpeas gently in a tea towel. To do a totally thorough job, you can pour them into a bowl of cold water and rub off any remaining skins between your palms or with your fingers.The skins will float and can easily be skimmed off the surface.
Then it’s just a matter of using the best ingredients you can afford, tasting as you go and throwing a couple of ice cubes in with the chickpeas when you process them. Personally, I’d spend the money on a good tahini as opposed to a swanky olive oil, as this puree of ground sesame seeds can make or break your hummus.
SMOKY SWEET POTATO HUMMUS
Add 400g of mashed roast sweet potato and a couple of teaspoons of smoked paprika to your basic hummus mix of chickpeas, tahini, etc. Adding to this simple base could be the foundation for any number of other different versions. Swap out the paprika and sweet potato for steamed or grilled broccoli to make a broccoli hummus topped with toasted sunflower seeds. You can make pea hummus with fresh mint, or roast-pumpkin hummus topped with maple-toasted pepitas.
FRENCH ONION HUMMUS
Add a couple of red onions, roasted in wedges, and half-a-dozen roasted garlic cloves when processing the chickpeas. Replace half the olive oil and the lemon juice with sour cream and apple cider vinegar,and add some thyme.This is sure to bring back memories of that infamous ʼ70s dip made with soup mix, but in trendy hummus form. And yes, you can serve this with crinkle-cut, ready-salted, chips.
GREEN HUMMUS
This can be a catch-all for any mix of herbs or leaves, but start by blitzing 50g of baby spinach, 1⁄4 cup of parsley and a couple of tablespoons of chopped basil leaves in with your chickpeas to turn it a lovely shade of green. You can blanche and squeeze out your greens before adding, but frankly, why bother?
HUMMUS WARS
With so much on the line, it’s no wonder that the title of Best Hummus Recipe is hotly contested. From the classic to loaded hybrids, here are our top hummus creations.
