When I make hummus – I might use canned chick peas, or might have more time and patience and cook my own beans.

There are two methods to cooking beans: The Patient Method and the Impatient Method.

The Patient Method: Soak dried beans completely covered water for 8 hours. The beans are going to expand so you’ll want to add enough water so that the water level is a few inches higher than the beans. 8 hours later, *drain and rinse, fill pan with fresh water, add beans and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer for about an hour and you’re ready to rock.

The Impatient Method: Put dried beans in a pan with enough water to cover and bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Let beans soak for about an hour, follow from * in The Patient Method above.

And for the record, The Extremely Impatient Method when it comes to making hummus is to skip the dried beans all together and just use canned beans.

I cooked 8 oz bag of garbanzos for this batch using the Patient Method. I made garlic hummus today with cooked beans, garlic, canola, tahini and salt.

I’ve made hummus so many times now my food processor has basically paid for itself.  I don’t carefully measure these ingredients, so these are estimates.

2 – 2 1/2 cups of cooked garbanzo beans, whatever was made from the 8 oz of dried beans.
1 teaspoon – 1 tablespoon of tahini.  (This can vary widely, I like more tahini now that I have in the past.)
2 – 4 cloves of garlic (again, more or less to taste)
1/4 c – 1/2 c canola oil.  The more oil you add the creamier it will be.
1/4 c lemon juice (approximately the amount of juice you get from one lemon)
salt

If I use canned beans I drain most of the liquid but not all, leaving maybe 15 – 10%. This adds to the creaminess factor too.

(back from the future to add a link with some secret tricks to make your hummus smoother and creamier!)

Everything in the food processor and give a spin.

Serve with vegetables,

devour immediately.

(I suppose you can store whatever you can keep yourself from eating in the fridge for later.)