I probably should be embarrassed to post this picture! Grandpa and I in the late 80’s.
How lucky was I to be born to a full blooded Lebanese grandfather? If there’s one thing my Lebanese family like to do – it’s cook and my Grandpa cooked!
This hummus recipe calls for some pretty basic ingredients. There is one item you may not be familiar with. Tahini is a lightly roasted sesame seed puree that you can find at some health food stores, or any middle-eastern grocery.
Your first step is to add your garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil and salt to the food processor.
As a general rule, I tell others to use 1 clove of garlic per can of garbanzo beans, however, if you are like me and love garlic, feel free to add a little bit more. One thing you will want to do is chop your garlic prior to adding it to the food processor. If the lucky person to try your hummus happens to get a big chunk of garlic that your food processor failed to process, they will not be your biggest fan. Unless the person you are serving is me – then I’d be your biggest fan!
Your finished product should resemble something like this. If you’d like it a little smoother, add a little bit more olive oil. I typically process the hummus for a good 1 to 2 minutes.
If you can stop yourself from dipping your pita bread directly into the food processor, you can chill before serving. I prefer it unchilled. You will also see some sliced onions on my plate. Hey, if you’re going to go all out and eat garlic, you might as well make it worthwhile and add some onion to the mix. We chop an onion in quarters and use them as scoops.
Enjoy! ♥
Grandpa's Hummus
Ingredients
- 3 cans garbanzo beans/chick peas
- 3 cloves of garlic chopped
- 3 tablespoons tahini
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 & 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
Instructions
- Place 2 drained cans of garbanzo beans into your food processor.
- Drain out about 1/2 the liquid from your 3rd can of garbanzo beans and add to your food processor.
- Chop garlic and add remaining ingredients to the food processor.
- Process hummus until smooth (usually a full 2 to 3 minutes).
- Some may prefer it chilled prior to serving but I can eat it right out of the food processor.
OH, can’t wait to try it…I am a HUGE hummus fan and we don’t have many options in my small town – and garlic…what else does anyone need…off to grocery store for my Tahana (and hoping I can get it here)…
Best Hummus and its home made and you get more for your money, too.
A really quick recipe and we learned to love it, also!
Carli, you have this recipe down pat and it comes out perfect everytime.
I just became a hummus aficionado. thanks for the recipe! 🙂 can’t wait to try it. fingers crossed that i can find tahini in this forsaken place!
Carli, you have brought back a ton of memories with this post and the great picture of you and your Grandpa Butch! I sure miss him and his wonderful cooking…And you are right, he certainly did love to cook! I miss his cheesecake too. I remember one year, he, your Grandma and Rose brought me his wonderful cheesecake in bed and sang happy birthday to me (don’t spit on the cake!!)…it was a wonderful start to my birthday! Please make your next Lebanese recipe post his grapeleaves (Warak Enab?) HOW I MISS THOSE! And sitting around the table rolling them (too big! too small! not tight enough…HEEHEE!) I am very proud of you keeping the traditions alive, by being a great cook and keeping the family recipes going! Love you, Carlsbad!!
P.S. The onion to dip is the BEST!
Candice,
Grapeleaves are a must! I’ll post that one next. 😉
♥ Carli
Thanks for sharing this recipe; I look forward to trying it. I make hummus sometimes, but never measure. It will be fun to see how this recipe compares to what I make. I have a Lebanese aunt and my dad’s family are all Christian Arabs (born in Nazareth). I grew up being exposed to the most wonderful food! My southern mom tried to learn as much as she could about Middle Eastern cooking. I remember her and my dad working together to make homemade pita bread, letting it rise between blankets. Perhaps a bit odd, but very tasty. They also made homemade falafel, grinding the soaked chic peas in a meat grinder. Then we would stuff the freshly fried falafel into pita bread halves and we would eat it with Arabic salad: lettuce and tomatoes with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. I would wait for what seemed like a long time for the food to be ready and then stuff myself silly. 🙂
Tammie, your recollections are very similar to my own! I believe my great grandfather (whom I never met) and my great grandmother were from Lebanon and Syria – mom, correct me if I’m wrong! I was only about 2 years old or so when my great grandmother passed away but her son, my grandpa, kept up with the cooking traditions. I don’t think I ever witnessed the making of pitas but we ate the same salad you did every Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ve tried my hand at making my own falafel with cucumber/yogurt sauce (Taziki? or something like that) and it turned out really good. Like you, I never measured out the ingredients of my hummus – it wasn’t until I decided to blog about it that I actually did the measuring and was actually surprised at the amounts of each ingredient when I was done. Ha!
I’ll be interested to hear about your thoughts on the hummus and if you make it any differently. I’ll really have to get my buns in gear and put up our grapeleave recipe soon. I’m sure you must be familiar with those too! 😉
Loved hearing from you and your story!
Carli