Hot dogs, burgers and ribs are great at BBQs – but often, the real showstoppers are the side salads and condiments.
They’re basically like the trimmings on a Christmas dinner. But instead of roasties and stuffing, you’ve got potato salad, vibrant vegetable skewers, and a drool-worthy array of dips.
And no summer party is complete without out a huge bowl of velvety hummus, just begging you to mop it up with crunchy vegetables or a hearty handful of tortilla chips.
It’s a crowd-pleaser. So, why not please (and impress) the crowd even more by making your own – from scratch?
Co-founders of Sorted Food Jamie Spafford and Ben Ebbrell, have shared their top tips for making the best, budget-friendly hummus, that will blow your guests away.
Jamie scoured the internet, using feedback from their more than 2.5 million YouTube subscribers from around the world, to uncover his perfect recipe.
Meanwhile, Ben has shared his classic chef’s recipe that uses budget ingredients combined with some clever cheffy tricks to get a silky smooth result – from adding ice cubes to roasting the garlic and using a pressure cooker, to budget tinned chickpeas.
Ben and Jamie’s top tips for perfect hummus
The chickpeas
According to Jamie, it’s all about the chickpeas. Jamie goes for the premium option using the highest quality jar of chickpeas available.
He carefully drains these to keep the aquafaba (the chickpea water) safe to use later. Unlike Jamie, Ben uses a budget tinned jar of chickpeas but uses his chef knowledge to transform their texture and bring out their flavour by putting them in a pressure cooker with the aquafaba from the tin, plus 400ml water and ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and cooks it all for 10 minutes on high pressure.
The garlic
Another key ingredient in hummus is garlic. To bring more depth of flavour from his garlic, Jamie roasts his in the oven wrapped in foil. Ben chooses to keep his raw, but uses ‘ten times’ more garlic than Jamie (approx 10-12 cloves), but he mixes these with the juice of two lemons, adds salt and blends it all together. This hugely mellows the fiery raw garlic taste.
The other ingredients
The hummus needs other core ingredients, for this once again Jamie chooses premium tahini and extra virgin olive oil. He goes for a subtle tahini with a smooth consistency, he takes 2-3 tablespoons of this, along with the juice of a lemon, a pinch of cumin, a good glug of the extra virgin olive oil, some salt and blends it all together. Ben also adds tahini, but goes for a mid-range option and uses more of it than Jamie – almost as much as the chickpeas!
How to blend
How to blend – Ben takes his cooked chickpeas and adds them to his tahini mixture. Ben’s tip is to do this while they are hot along with adding a couple of spoonfuls of the water they are cooked in, which helps to further take the rawness off of the garlic.
Unlike Ben, Jamie adds his chickpeas in batches, which helps them blend up more consistently to get that silky smooth texture. Plus, with every batch of chickpeas he adds a handful of ice cubes – this helps the temperature so it doesn’t heat up whilst it is blending.
Ben doesn’t use ice cubes but keeps blending his until it comes down to room temperature and is super smooth, this also whips lots of air into it to bring out a lighter consistency.
Ice bath
Ben recommends that once you’ve got it at the consistency you want, cool it off in an ice bath to speed it up and stop a skin forming. And if you decide you want it softer and smoother he recommends adding some of the chickpea cooking liquid. Finally season with salt & pepper and drizzle of olive oil.
Jamie’s chef-beating hummus recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 bulb garlic
- 660g jar of premium chickpeas (drained = 400g)
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 2-3 tbsp tahini
- 1 lemon
- 3 ice cubes
- Olive oil, extra virgin
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180℃.
2. Trim the top off one bulb of garlic, rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place it on a small roasting tray and roast in the oven for 30 minutes, or until fudgey, soft and golden brown.
3. Drain the jar of chickpeas through a colander over a mixing bowl, saving the liquid (aquafaba) for later.
4. Add 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 large clove of the roasted garlic, 2 tbsp tahini and the juice of 1 lemon to the bowl of a food processor along with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Whizz for 1 minute until well combined.
5. Begin to add the chickpeas to the food processor in small batches, continuing to blitz the mixture as you go. Add the ice cubes to keep the temperature down and ensure that your hummus is nice and silky. You can use the reserved aquafaba to help loosen the mixture if necessary.
6. Once blended to the required consistency, check for tahini/lemon/salt/pepper seasoning and adjust as necessary.
7. Serve in a bowl with a good glug of olive oil.
Chef’s ultimate hummus recipe
Ingredients:
- 400g chickpeas, tinned
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 10 cloves garlic
- 2 lemons
- 2 tsp salt
- 100ml olive oil, extra virgin
- 250g tahini paste
Method
1. Tip 400g chickpeas, undrained, plus 400ml water and ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda into a pressure cooker and cook at full pressure for 10 minutes.
2. Peel 10 cloves of garlic and add them to the bowl of a food processor along with the juice of 2 lemons and 2 tsp salt. Purée for 1-2 minutes until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary.
3. Add 100ml extra virgin olive oil and 250g tahini paste and continue to blitz for 2 minutes – the mixture may split but this is fine at this stage.
4. Once the chickpeas are cooked, drain through a sieve and save the cooking liquid.
5. Add the warm chickpeas and 30g of the cooking juices to the food processor. Blitz for 5 minutes until silky smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and lemon juice.
6. Cool the hummus over an ice bath before serving in a bowl with the spiced chicken and pancetta topping.
Credit: SourceYou can read this post on My Celebrity Life.
