Easy Hummus Recipe (Kotoweo cha Dengu)

A friend of mine (Jewish) one day invited me over for dinner at his mother's house. His mother served a homemade hummus and I loved it. I have been using hummus for quite sometime now in replace of dips and butter but the homemade one was just so delicious so I decided to learn how to make it from scratch by myself too. I found out the secret is the order in which you add ingredients to your food processor and  for extra smooth hummus is to remove the skins of each chickpea.

Hummus is a Middle Eastern and Arabic food dip or spread. The hummus acts as both the protein and the condiment. I love hummus on cucumber slices, in fact, it's great on anything green.

Ingredients

• 2 cups drained well-cooked or canned chickpeas, liquid reserved
• 1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste), optional, with some of its oil
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus oil for drizzling
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled, or to taste
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin or paprika, or to taste, plus a sprinkling for garnish
• Juice of 1 lemon, plus more as needed
• Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish

Directions 

In the bowl of a food processor, combine tahini and lemon juice. Process for 1 minute.

Add the olive oil, minced garlic, cumin and the salt to whipped tahini and lemon juice.

Process for 30 seconds, scrape sides and bottom of bowl then process another 30 seconds.

Add half of the chickpeas to the food processor then process for 1 minute. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl, add remaining chickpeas and process for 1 to 2 minutes or until thick and quite smooth.

If the hummus is too thick or still have tiny bits of chickpea use the pause on the food processor and slowly add 2 to 3 tablespoons of water until the consistency is perfect.

Scrape the hummus into a bowl then drizzle about 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the top and sprinkle with paprika.

Store homemade hummus in an airtight container and refrigerate up to one week.