Hummus from Scratch. 100%

1.  Prepare the Tahini

1.  You may optionally roast the sesame seeds before processing them; this adds a lil extra toasty note to the tahini, and thus the final product.  Roast at 375 for ~15 minutes, shake it up halfway through. 
2.  Wait for it to cool before processing.  Processing will add enough heat, without carrying over the oven heat as well. 
3.  Combine sesame seeds, whichever oil you chose, and salt in your food processor or blender. 
4.  Process / grind / mortar-and-pestle / whatever you’ve got until it starts gettin’ a bit like peanut butter.  I use the Cuisinart Sous Chef 12 cup, myself, and find it works well.  Their 16 cup one would probably be great too.  Either way, you’ll want something fairly capable.
   1. You’ll probably have to scrape down the sides a few times.  This is really the limiting factor to reducing the oil added.  If you’ve got infinitely high patience, you can use infinitely low added oil. 
   2.  The specified oil ratio seems to yield a good blendy consistency that doesn’t overheat the blender or the mixture too much, and helps keep the mixture in contact with the blades, avoiding frequent tamping/scraping.  Your mileage may vary!  

**Texture Matters**  Don’t move on from Step 3/4 until you’ve got a solid paste with very little granularity.  You may need to stop and let the mixture and/or machine cool. 

**If Splitting Batches**  Tare the processor bowl w/ blade before adding any ingredients, so you can remove half the mixture later with some measure of precision.  This is a limitation imposed by my personal food processor size.

2.  Let’s Talk Garlic

1. If roasting, you can roast garlic as a full bulb, or you can pre-emptively remove the shell.  If you do chose to remove the shell, you may wish to cover the skillet/whatever in the oven, or the garlic will have a tendency to dry.  I recommend roasting in the whole bulb.
   1. If you roast them as a whole bulb, the woody nubs will mostly stay behind, but if you remove the cloves beforehand, you should cut those bits off. 
2. Generally, you wanna go low and slow for this.  350 or 375 for ~20-30 minutes.
3. Having finished preparing the tahini (above), you can start adding the roasted garlic.  Obviously, no skins or woody nubs. 
4. Get the garlic fully integrated before moving on to the next step. 

**Depending on size of batch and food processor, remove half the mixture at this point**

**Quantities going forward are for the complete, full batch, non-cut, amounts**

3.  Flavorants — anything that’ll mix well with oil, really

1.  At this point, it’s time to get some flavors in there.  Just about anything, at this point, could make sense — see Part 1 for ingredient suggestions, or Part 3 for variations.
2.  Speaking of, not a bad idea to bloom/temper the spices in a skillet real quick.  Either way, it’s probably helpful to get the spices blended in with the oil before the water-based ingredients go in, and especially helpful with particle sizes if you’re not grinding the spices down beforehand 
3.  This step doesn’t have to take all that long.  Just a minute or two of processing.  Flavor should be too intense at this point, it’ll dilute down later with the chickpeas. 

4.  Drop Some Acid

1.  Begin blending in your chosen acid.  You’re building an emulsion between the oil-rich tahini and the acid.  This will help to bind the ingredients together and create a cohesive mixture.
2.  The emulsion process is essential for achieving the desired consistency and flavor balance when making hummus from scratch.  As the ingredients are blended together, the starches from the chickpeas and the fats from the tahini and olive oil combine with the lemon juice to create a creamy and homogenous mixture. This emulsification process is what gives hummus its characteristic smooth and velvety texture.
3.  Start adding lemon juice (50g for this step) and, as needed, aquafaba.  Ideally, stream it in through the lid hole at a slow/moderate pace.  The mixture will  thicken as the lemon juice incorporates, so the aquafaba may be needed to keep it mobile.   It’s emulsifying, very exciting.  
4.  After a while, you should have a mixture that tastes a bit too lemony, has too much spice business happening, is slightly thin but not at all runny, has lightened in color substantially, and is smooth in texture.  

5.  Finally, the Chickpeas

1.  Now we can start adding the cooked chickpeas.  This is the final major ingredient addition. 
2.  Let’s talk about the chickpea prep:
   1. Soak in water and baking soda, ~2 tsp per dry pound, overnight 18 or more hours
      1. I really do think starting from dehydrated, dried beans is the way to go.  It’s both great value and produces objectively the best result.  Win/Win.
      2. Though, Kenji Lopez-Alt says you can get the same effect with salt.  The important thing is to weaken the pectin in the shells during the soaking phase. 
   2.  Many guides say you should peel the skins.  As long as you include baking soda (or salt), you just don’t need to bother because the dissolves the chitin, and the cooking process handles the rest. 
   3. Even if you are gonna remove the skins, still use the baking soda, it helps a lot.  Many guides suggest adding the baking soda while the beans cook, but I do think it’s more effective and less likely to be noticeable in the taste, if you do it during the soak.
      1. Or, if you’re using canned beans, the guides sometimes suggest a quick pan-fry w/ baking soda.  Honestly, while this does work, it’s just too much squeeze for too little juice, y’know?
   4. Rinse well before cooking, otherwise you might end up w/ a metallic flavor 
   5. In a standard covered saucepan, expect something like 30 minutes at a soft boil and ~2-3 hours at a super gentle simmer.  Stir, scraping the bottom, especially near the end, to avoid sticking and burning
   6. The goal is to achieve a thick liquid, a lil thicker than gravy, a lil thicker than pancake batter, , and have chickpeas that are thoroughly cooked and starting to break down.
      1. You can get extra liquid thiccness by removing some of the chickpeas a bit early, for salads or pan frying as a side or whatever you feel like. 
3. Hoookay, it’s finally chickpea o’clock.
   1. ****this is not checked; conflicting notes; go slow to avoid overdoing it****
      1. Add 1 ½ cups of chickpeas (200g?),
      2. “500-1000g chickpeas – measured as cooked, shoot a little low for a nuttier hummus”

6.  Bringing It All Together

1. Add more chickpeas, aquafaba, lemon juice, and salt as needed for texture and flavor.
2. Can’t remove aquafaba, so if it’s too thick and also not lemony enough, adjust w/ lemon first. 
3. Blend AF again, until it’s smooth.  It almost kinda ‘sets’ in the fridge, so you’re gonna want it looser than you’d expect.  Think: soft/medium peaks.  If you tipped the container, it’d pour out, somewhat viscously.
4. Finally, the acidic flavor dulls after a day or two, so consider adding a little extra.