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Serves
about 4 cups or medium bowl
Author Notes
Though I am sure you won't think about Hummus first for a bean dish, this a great opportunity to introduce a staple. All my friends keep craving mine. For us it a taste of home and for you I hope an opportunity to taste the real deal if you make it. You won't regret looking for the right ingredients. And there are three keys to this easy recipe- the raw Tahini, good beans and cooking the beans with aromatics. You have to have great Tahini, one from the middle east, I use Al Wadi. Buy the beans from a good place that keep them fresh, preferably smaller ones. It does not last more than 2-3 days, but in any case it best served warm right after cooking and anyway there won't be any leftovers. I wish I just could find really good fluffy and thick pitas around here. —Cordelia
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Ingredients
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18 ounces
of good, medium sized, garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
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1
big onion, peeled and quartered
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4-5
cloves of garlic
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1/4
of a bunch of parsley
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1/2-3/4 cups
of good raw tahini paste (preferably from somewhere in the Middle East, I use al wadi from Lebanon)
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Juice of half a lemon
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2 teaspoons of cumin
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1 teaspoon salt
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¼ cup of olive oil
Directions
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Soak the chickpeas for at least 12 hours in cold tap water.
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Drain and put the chickpeas in a sauce pan with the onion, 3 cloves of garlic, parsley and cover with water, about double the amount of chickpeas.
Bring to a boil, remove as much foam as you can from the top of the liquid, and cook for 1.5-2 hours, until the chickpeas are really soft and you can mash them easily in your fingers.
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Drain, but keep the liquid and the veggies.
If you want you can take of the peel of the chickpea, it is a tedious process and I am not convince4d it makes a huge difference.
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Put the chickpeas, the cooked onion, garlic and parsley, uncooked 1-2 cloves of garlic, tahini, lemon juice, salt, cumin and ½ cup of the cooking liquid in a food processor and mix well, until you get a very smooth paste. If it looks too thick (it will get thicker when it cools, so you can make it a little runnier if you do not serve it immediately, thought it should be a paste not chickpea stew) add a little more water, just 2 tablespoons at a time.
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Add the oil and mix well shortly.
Taste for salt and see if you like a more distinct taste of cumin.
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Best served immediately, but in any case in room temperature, so take it out of the fridge some time before you serve. But not too long. It does not preserve well and won’t keep more than 2-3 in the fridge.
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You can save some whole chickpeas for decoration and also drizzle some very good extra virgin olive oil on top. Enjoy with pita bread and also traditionally with hard boiled egg and briny pickles.
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