Basic Hummus

Ingredients
1 cup of dried chickpeas OR 2 cups/15 oz of canned chickpeas
1 bay leaf (if you started from dried)
1/3 cup tahini (HIGHLY recommend the squeeze bottle)
2 lemons
4ish cloves of garlic (personal preference)
1/4 cup of olive oil (if you want less fat you can go down to 2 TBSP)
1/2 cup of water
salt

Tools
Small saucepan (if you start from dried)
Oven top (see above)
Food Processor
Knife & Cutting Board
Spatula
Spoon (any spoon will do)

1. Wash the dried chickpeas and cover them in double (or more) the amount of water. Add the bay leaf and boil for two minutes.
2. After two minutes turn off the stove and let sit for one hour.
3. After one hour, dump out the water, fill with fresh and simmer until chickpeas are soft enough to squish between your thumb and forefinger. For me this takes about an hour, but it varies each time so start checking around 40 minutes.
4. Dump out chickpeas in strainer and remove the bay leaf. If you are using canned chickpeas start here and make sure to rise them once you dump them out of the can. I won’t tell you how to cook, but I will say I find a huge difference in flavor cooking them from dried with the bay leaf.
5. Dump chickpeas in the food processor with tahini, juice from both lemons, garlic (I recommend chopping it a bit first) and a few pinches of salt.
6. Turn on the food processor and drizzle in the olive oil.
   1. This is where personal preference will take over so before you do anything else take the top off and look at the consistency of the hummus – it will look pasty. Just think of how fluffy you want to go from pasty and in the end that is how much water you will add. More water = more fluffy.
7. Turn the food processor back on and drizzle in the water until you get the consistency you want. Start small and check it a few times as you can’t go backwards! For me 1/2 cup of water is perfect, but that’s just what I like.
8. TASTE – The flavors will come together more over time, but again you can’t go backwards so you need to taste it here. Does it need more salt? More garlic? More lemon? Do not be afraid to play with your food.
9. ADDENDUM: Once you master the basics of the way you like it, then play around with adding in things like roasted red peppers, cumin, etc. but get the basics down first – once you have that you can build anything you want!