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Nosh-Off: I’ll Never Eat Store-Bought Hummus Again
By Dale Raben / September 10, 2007
Hummus (or houmous, hommos, hommus, hummos… it's kind of like Hanukkah) is something I always have on hand. Usually it's a store-bought variety. Since there are so many varieties in the cold case, I decided to sit down and really compare them. Then I whipped up my own batch to see if the little extra trouble was worth it.
From the grocery store, we have:
- Tribe All Natural Hummus (Ingredients: chickpeas, lemon juice, sesame tahini, canola oil, sea salt, natural flavor, spices)
- Sabra Hummus Solo with Whole Seasoned Chickpeas (Ingredients: chickpeas, tahini, soy bean and/or canola oil, water, garlic, salt, citric acid, spices, seasoning, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate to preserve freshness)
- Nature’s Gifts' “dill hummos” – Nature's Gifts is a natural foods store near me; this looked homemade. (Ingredients: chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, dill)
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After mutilating these hummuses with baby carrots and toasted pita bread, I thought The Tribe All Natural Hummus had the best flavor and would please a crowd. However the dill in the Nature’s Gifts hummus added a pleasant little zing. I also preferred its slightly chunkier less processed texture. If you want to hear your party guests coo "ooh what's in that?" (and who doesn't) find yourself some dill hummus.
Although I enjoyed the whole chickpeas on top of the Sabra, it was the blandest, too creamy and a bit sweet. Basically, it was kind of gross and I wanted to stop eating it after my second bite. (Notice that this was the only one with preservatives.) I suspected my homemade hummus would be far superior to the grocery-store variety. I was so right.
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Foo. Although this recipe could use less Tahina and more chickpeas. You can also add paprika as a garnish at the end.
Hummus,shmummus. I hate the Red Sox.
i'm not a die-hard red sox fan, but my fiance is. so, sometimes i have to go to games and pretend like i'm interested. and sometimes i have to wear red sox gear (but only around the house). there. it's out there. PLEASE don't hold it against me.
Hudna indeed. And if you found yourself Chicagowards, I would even more than happily have you over for mint tea, shakshouka and dialogue (I'm a NY transplant and could count on Astoria in the past for the good Arab markets–there's a few in the way north of the city here, but without a car it is a bit of a hike, though the fresh pita does make it worthwhile). Just as long as you aren't a diehard Red Sox fan, those are people I really can't dialogue with…
Sorry, wish I could help. I’m not familiar with any culinary particulars of the midwest (though I’m told that Zingerman’s is a must), having never spent any serious time there.
Sahadi Brothers tahini is quite good and it has reasonable distribution on the east coast. I wouldn’t be surprised if a “gourmet” store carried it out there, and there’s got to be a middle eastern grocery in Chicago (that’s where you are, no?) They’ll have tahini that’s nice and unctuous, as opposed to that spackle they sell at health food stores.
Good luck, and I call hudna while we eat. After that, you again become a lackey jackal of Zionism.
Ismail
Ismail,
While we can generally agree about the lack of good packaged hummus, maybe we can also agree that it is nearly impossible to get good tahini here in the States. If I could, it surely would be in my Extra Special Imperialist Hummus, which sometimes gives a nod to my Moroccan family roots (if I use a little harissa). But I am all ears if you have any thoughts on where to find the good tahini, especially here in the Midwest.
This just in from the culinary imperialism desk:
Dale’s recipe is close enough to my mom’s to count as Arabic (i.e., genuine) hummus. Well done (maybe a tad less lemon).
Adam, no tahini? Doesn’t make you a communist, but, damn….that’s just wrong. Could you perhaps be Jewish? Those guys don’t know jack re hummus.
Interesting that Dale thought Tribe tasted best. You may know that the original name of that brand was “Tribe of Two Sheiks” and that the label prominently featured an illustration of an Arab on camelback. I can only assume that these signifiers were bowdlerized post 9/11 so that the brand would appeal to a wider (i.e., racist) demographic.
But I agree that there is no excuse whatsoever for buying hummus when it’s so easy to make. The exception: if you’re lucky enough to live where there is a significant Arabic/Armenian population. Purchasing hummus from Hagop or Ahmed is entirely permissible and encouraged.
Ismail
No. You're a commie for your support of the Maoist International Movement.
Yeah, massive amounts of garlic is definitely the trick. So we can both totally not make out when making hummus. Yet sadly I make hummus really frequently? A dash of tumeric and a tiny bit of shug also spices it up well too.
Though am I a Commie, pinko, bastard for making mine sans tahini?
This is just about exactly how I make mine — except I use the liquid from the chickpeas in place of the water to give it a richer taste. And . . . I add a bit of cayenne pepper at the end to give it a tiny little kick in the ass. Oh, yes, and I quadruple the garlic. I am so not kiss-able on days I make hummus.
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