Get to your local Indian grocer and buy channa dal.
What is it? It's chickpeas that have been split and dehusked. Not only will your chickpeas cook in (ostensibly) half the time, you won't need to worry about the skins making your hummus lumpy or going to the bother of trying to remove them manually.
There's a fair bit of back and forth online about how to make hummus very smooth. Some people align to the ice water blending camp, others to the blend while hot camp. Either way, using a high speed blender is ideal (be cautious about blending hot things in a blender though - all the typical safety warnings apply). I'll leave it up to whoever bothers to read this to do their own research and figure out what works best for their situation.
To take it up one notch, apparently besan flour in Turkey is commonly known as instant hummus flour. Besan is readily available in Indian grocers as well. If you blend besan flour with water that has just boiled, you will get very smooth hummus for practically zero effort. I was fiddling around with this before my life went to absolute shit so I never quite nailed it and last time I checked there was no English-language info out there on how to use Besan flour as instant hummus so I didn't get to figure out the ideal ratio of besan flour to water. I found that an undesirable skin formed on this hummus due to the way that it cooled but this can be prevented by placing cling wrap or similar over the top of your hummus and pressing it down so that there's no contact with air before it cools. (Also you can use the besan flour to make Burmese "tofu" - it's super simple to make!)
If lemons are expensive in your region, sumac is your friend. This spice is a bit more difficult to source as it's less common but it serves as a really good stand-in for lemon (technically lemon is the stand-in for sumac in West Asian cooking afaik but I digress...) Sourcing citric acid is another alternative and it works quite well too. It's never going to be the same as freshly squeezed lemon juice but it's very cheap. You can also use the leftover citric acid to make your own surface cleaning spray which is odor-free and stupidly cheap.
These are tips that you don't really find elsewhere, for some reason. I guess I just think about hummus a lot?
Used to make hummus in a foodservice setting: use canned chickpeas instead of cooked dry. Make sure your food processor is ventilated well because you’re gonna be running it longer and with a higher load than it was designed for. Use some kind of oil to straighten out the consistency once the tahini and chickpeas are blended right. Go easy on the oil if you’re gonna use a liquid spice.
Some cool hummus flavors to make:
garlic and onion: it’s garlic and onion powder. Favorite of crackers.
Buffalo chicken: ranch dressing powder and cayenne.
Mint: fresh mint leaves. It’s weird to experience the “spice buildup” that some foods have with mint.
Bbq: literally pour some bbq sauce in there. The more concentrated and flavorful ones work good.
You get some unexpected diners when your server says “our hummus today is bbq marinade”.
Pro-tips for making hummus at home:
Get to your local Indian grocer and buy channa dal.
What is it? It's chickpeas that have been split and dehusked. Not only will your chickpeas cook in (ostensibly) half the time, you won't need to worry about the skins making your hummus lumpy or going to the bother of trying to remove them manually.
There's a fair bit of back and forth online about how to make hummus very smooth. Some people align to the ice water blending camp, others to the blend while hot camp. Either way, using a high speed blender is ideal (be cautious about blending hot things in a blender though - all the typical safety warnings apply). I'll leave it up to whoever bothers to read this to do their own research and figure out what works best for their situation.
To take it up one notch, apparently besan flour in Turkey is commonly known as instant hummus flour. Besan is readily available in Indian grocers as well. If you blend besan flour with water that has just boiled, you will get very smooth hummus for practically zero effort. I was fiddling around with this before my life went to absolute shit so I never quite nailed it and last time I checked there was no English-language info out there on how to use Besan flour as instant hummus so I didn't get to figure out the ideal ratio of besan flour to water. I found that an undesirable skin formed on this hummus due to the way that it cooled but this can be prevented by placing cling wrap or similar over the top of your hummus and pressing it down so that there's no contact with air before it cools. (Also you can use the besan flour to make Burmese "tofu" - it's super simple to make!)
If lemons are expensive in your region, sumac is your friend. This spice is a bit more difficult to source as it's less common but it serves as a really good stand-in for lemon (technically lemon is the stand-in for sumac in West Asian cooking afaik but I digress...) Sourcing citric acid is another alternative and it works quite well too. It's never going to be the same as freshly squeezed lemon juice but it's very cheap. You can also use the leftover citric acid to make your own surface cleaning spray which is odor-free and stupidly cheap.
These are tips that you don't really find elsewhere, for some reason. I guess I just think
about hummusa lot?These are some great tips!
Used to make hummus in a foodservice setting: use canned chickpeas instead of cooked dry. Make sure your food processor is ventilated well because you’re gonna be running it longer and with a higher load than it was designed for. Use some kind of oil to straighten out the consistency once the tahini and chickpeas are blended right. Go easy on the oil if you’re gonna use a liquid spice.
Some cool hummus flavors to make:
garlic and onion: it’s garlic and onion powder. Favorite of crackers.
Buffalo chicken: ranch dressing powder and cayenne.
Mint: fresh mint leaves. It’s weird to experience the “spice buildup” that some foods have with mint.
Bbq: literally pour some bbq sauce in there. The more concentrated and flavorful ones work good.
You get some unexpected diners when your server says “our hummus today is bbq marinade”.