I’ve made Hummus years and years back when I was on a food experimentation drive. The past few weeks, in a bid to increase good protein, I was thinking of making hummus again, but somehow this did not happen. Then the other day, I read about someone who was raving about Tesco’s caramelized onion hummus and I was intrigued. This made me want to try making hummus again, and also try it with caramelized onion. As luck would be, I also had some dry chickpeas or garbazano beans which were going to go bad soon and so this recipe of hummus soon saw the light of the day.

When I made Hummus earlier, I didn’t add Tahini paste to it, thinking I won’t get it here in Singapore. Then when I went online and found how to make it, I realised it was very simple and so this time, I made it as authentic as I could….

Hummus and Tahini

Ingredients:

For the Tahini Paste 

• 2 tbsps white sesame seeds
• 3-4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

For the Hummus

• 2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked in a pressure cooker until soft
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3-4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsps tahini
• 2 tbsps lemon juice
• salt to taste

Method:

For the Tahini

• Soak the sesame seeds in a bowl of water and drain it.
• In a dry pan, dry roast it till it starts to crackle. This should take not more than 5-6 minutes. Do not let it brown too much and burn.
• Take it off the gas and let it cool completely.
• In a small mixer/blender, blend the sesame seeds to a powder, then add the olive oil and blend till it becomes a smooth paste. Keep aside.

For the Hummus

• In another pan, add 1 tsp oil (I used a canola olive blend) and when it warms, add the chopped garlic and stir, letting it brown and caramalize.
• When it browns, remove and keep aside. In the same pan, with the remaining oil, add in the chopped onions and let them brown and caramalize. Once it has browned, remove and keep aside.
• In another mixer blender, add the chickpeas, caramalized onions and garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and tahini and blend well.
• You can blend it smooth like I did or keep it slightly coarse. You can also keep some onions aside to use as a topping.
• Check for salt and serve. You can also add some red chilli powder to use as a topping when serving.

I usually eat this plain, or add in my red chilli chutney and eat….