I recently realised that my blog must be the only vegan food blog in the world without a basic hummus recipe! Can you believe it? I hang my head in shame and dash off to peel my chickpeas…’WHAT?’ I hear you cry…’you PEEL chickpeas, you crazy woman?’ Yup, I’m afraid I do… 🙂
In my defence though, it doesn’t even take that long. It took me only 20 minutes to peel the chickpeas for this recipe. Plus, it’s actually quite therapeutic. I put nice music on and sit there peeling my chickpeas and talking to my cat…Is that strange?! The reason I peel them is because peeled chickpeas make a waaaayy nicer and smoother hummus! It’s really worth it, trust me. Some hummus gurus advocate adding a teaspoon of baking soda to the cooking of the chickpeas to soften them (and make them cook faster). As I am not overly keen on increasing my baking soda intake on such a regular basis (yes, I eat a lot of hummus) I don’t actually do that. Instead, I am a fan of using ice-cold chickpea cooking water (also known as aquafaba) to give my hummus “baby bottom smooth” consistency. It appeals to my food thrifter instinct and makes my palate happy without any need for lugs of olive oil.
½ cup olive oil (not extra virgin) 2-3 tbsp hot chilli flakes ¼ tsp salt (optional)
