Hummus has rapidly become one of the most popular foods in the United States. A Wall Street Journal article from late 2013 says it all; “Hummus is Conquering America,” as the article is titled, explains that hummus, while not quite as popular as salsa, is now among our five most favorite foods.
If you’re like many Americans, your love of your favorite hummus spread, whether that’s roasted garlic hummus dip or spicy hummus dip, has made you want to try your hand at making your own at home. While many home cooks do manage to use easy hummus recipes to prepare a passable version, most fall victim to some extremely common mistakes. Make sure you don’t fall into this latter category when preparing your hummus spread by avoiding these common pitfalls.
Three Things You Need to Stop Doing When Making Homemade Hummus Spread
- Using Canned Chickpeas
- Dumping Out the Chickpea Liquid
- Skimping on the EVOO
One of the biggest mistakes home cooks make, according to the popular cooking site The Hummus Blog, is using canned chickpeas when they should be using the dried versions. Using canned chickpeas effectively strips your end product of a ton of flavor, not to mention a lot of its nutritional value. If you want to make a better, more nutritious hummus, do the extra work and prepare dried chickpeas for the job instead.
For the guide to cooking and eating on a budget The Paupered Chef, if you really want to screw up your homemade hummus, discard the chickpea liquid, whether it’s the cooking liquid you’ve made by preparing dried chickpeas or the liquid from the evil canned versions. These liquids contain a ton of flavor, and they’ll help moisten your hummus in a way normal water can’t.
Hummus is known around the world as one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Thinking to make it even healthier, many home chefs decide to skimp on one of hummus’s most important ingredients: olive oil. As the Middle Eastern cuisine guide Delicious Istanbul details, olive oil is not only responsible for adding a ton of flavor to hummus, it’s actually responsible for many of the nutritional benefits the dip is said to provide.
Yes, olive oil is pure fat, and if you consume too much of it, your stomach and your waistline are going to know it awfully quick. That said, olive oil, when eaten in the right amount, provides a ton of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, both of which have been tied to improved heart health. Don’t overdo it, but certainly don’t underdo it either.
What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made when trying to emulate different types of hummus at home? Share your culinary adventures with us in the comments below.
