I once saw a shirt that said “I am a hummus sexual” and never have I had a shirt speak to me so much. I mean, it touched my heart (which is partly made of hummus I assume, but I’m no doctor so…

I have had many failed attempts at making hummus. It was always too lumpy, too thick, too flavorless, too…something. Turns out it takes being locked down in a foreign country for 5 months for the universe to say, “You know what, I have put you through enough. I shall give you the gift of being able to make hummus that doesn’t suck.” I could not have done it without the help of a new friend. We have met some amazing people here in Bohol, a stunning island located in the middle of the Philippines, and that has made all the difference. Our new friend is a diving instructor we met at our favorite local bottle shop called Ken’s. The fellow plant-based pal took pity on me and lent me a hand blender and stocked me up with sesame seeds, garlic and onion powder, and the holy grail of vegan food-nutritional yeast. Oh. My. Gosh. Thank you small miracles!

Back at home, we celebrated by making hummus, and for a moment in time, all was right in the world. The boys loved trying out the hand mixer and could not wait eat it.

There are two very very important things to do to make sure your hummus is extra smooth and creamy. One is that you MUST de-skin the chickpeas before whizzing it into hummus. You can do this by pouring rinsed chickpeas into a large bowl and filling the bowl with water. Then, rub the chickpeas in between your fingers, which will loosen the skin from the chickpeas. After a couple of minutes, many of them will be floating towards the top. Grab something you can use to skim the skins off of the water, like a small sieve with a handle. If the skins float back down, don’t worry, you just need to mix it up with your hand again and quickly scoop them out with your sieve. Then, remove the chickpeas with the sieve and make sure all the skins are removed, discarding any remaining ones as you place them into your mixing bowl. It adds a few minutes to the prep time, and if you are strapped for time, you can omit it. However, it’s 100% worth it for maximum level hummus yummus.

The second important thing to note is that a hand blender/emulsion blender is by far the best way I have found to make hummus smooth and delightful. When I tired to use a food processor or blender, it just wasn’t the same. Again, you can work with what you’ve got of course, but for best results, hand blender is the way to go.

Now, onto the recipe!