I DID IT!

For a couple years now, I've been obsessed with Israeli hummus.

 Hummos?  Humos?  Houmous?  You know what I'm talking about.  It's suddenly as popular as greek yogurt with "moms on the go" and "ladies watching their waistline".  Is it healthy?  Yeah, probably.  Do I care?  No.  It's delicious.  And, in fact, it's probably not all that healthy for you if you're buying the kind on the grocery store shelves loaded with who-knows-how-much oil.

I started seeking it out when we lived in NYC at different restaurants.  The greeks made it a little chunky.  The Turks had it smooth but not as much as when I tasted the ethereal cloud that is an Israeli hummus.  It's like a chickpea custard; rich, fatty, salty, fluffy.



 I could wax poetic about it for days, but you've been there, amiright?  So finally, I asked a chef at one brooklyn establishment how they get it so fluffy and dreamy.  What did she say?  "Peel the chickpeas".  UM WHAT?!  Who has time for that?  That can't possibly make that much of a difference, it has to be their high speed fancy blender doing all that work.  So the thought just drifted away from me.  Until I was haunted by the craving again.  And who would have thought, moving to Long Island would leave me with such a huge hole in the good israeli food department.  No smooth, creamy cloudlike custard for me.  What to do?  I made it.

I experimented with ratios and such, but then I remembered the peeling idea.  WHOA.  Let me tell you the difference this makes.  Is it a pain in the ass, especially with my already arthritic hands?  Yup.  But luckily, I have a lot of netflix TV to catch up on and a happy husband willing to work for his dip.

I don't have an exact recipe to share, however I can say good fatty tahini + peeled chickpeas + pan roasted garlic cloves + acidic pop of lemon juice = Heaven.