Wow, not that many years ago, most peo­ple had­n’t heard of hum­mus, let alone ever tried it. Thanks to com­pa­nies like Sabra, Tribe, and Athenos, hum­mus has become ubiq­ui­tous in the super­mar­ket. In fact, an arti­cle in the Wall Street Jour­nal on April 29, 2013 says that the grow­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty of hum­mus is cre­at­ing a run on chick­peas, grown most­ly in the North­west, and that for­mer tobac­co farms in the South are being turned over to chick­pea cul­ti­va­tion. How is that for turn­ing a neg­a­tive crop into a pos­i­tive one?! You can read about the health ben­e­fits of chick­peas and oth­er legumes in Bean Briefs.
Despite the fact that ready-made hum­mus is every­where, I still pre­fer to make my own. Some­times I cook up dried chick­peas — my favorites are the small chick­peas sold by Kalustyan’s in NYC or Yaranush in White Plains, NY. Most times I’m not that orga­nized and I use chick­peas from the can. A few weeks ago, one of my friends served hum­mus using a recipe from Jerusalem, by Israeli-born, Lon­don-based chef Yotam Ottolenghi, and it was amaz­ing. My friend Alix Fur­er and I adapt­ed it for canned chick­peas and then cre­at­ed an Indi­an-inspired dish to enter into a hum­mus con­test at our syn­a­gogue. We did­n’t win but the recipe tru­ly is a win­ner!

Chan­na Hum­mus
15-oz can chick­peas, half the liq­uid drained off
1/3 cup tahi­ni
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 clove gar­lic
1 tsp cur­ry pow­der
Salt to taste

Top­pings:
Veg­e­tar­i­an cur­ried chick­peas (in the Indi­an sec­tion of the mar­ket)
Chopped toma­to
Minced cilantro
Plain yogurt
Man­go chut­ney

Blend togeth­er the chick­peas and remain­ing liq­uid, tahi­ni, lemon juice, gar­lic, cur­ry pow­der and salt in a blender or food proces­sor until very smooth. Place in a bowl or spread on a plate and top with any or all of the top­pings. We served it with Fla­m­ous Falafel Chips to keep the chick­pea theme going and meet the needs of our gluten-free friends.