Hummus Help!

[jsgksu]

I have recently tried making hummus and it keeps coming out horrible and I was wondering if anyone could help me.

I've been primarily using two recipes from Allrecipes.com which apparently I'm not allowed to post until I have 20+ posts but they are entitled:

Spiced Sweet Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Hummus III

And they continue to taste very bad. I love hummus, I buy it from the store all the time. But I got a food processor for Christmas and wanted to start making my own and I just don't understand what could be going wrong.

I've tried using much less tahini then the recipes call for because I assumed that was the problem but it still tasted bad. I'm starting to think maybe its the brand of ingredients I've been using.

I used Goya brand garbanzo geans and Pelponese(sp?) brand tahini. Does anyone have experience with either of these, or know what I could possibly be doing to be messing this recipe up? As it seems all reviews of the recipes I've use are good, i can't fathom what I could be doing wrong and it is really frustrating me.

Thanks for any suggestions/ideas!

[Saphellae]

Did you rinse the beans thoroughly?
What exactly does it taste like (what part of it is bad?)
Is it the texture?

[vyapti]

Here's the ingredients in mine:

1½ cups chickpeas (1 can drained)
2 lemons, juiced
2 cloves garlic
2 tbs olive oil
pinch cayenne pepper
2/3 cup tahini
salt and pepper to taste

And I cut the oil down to 2 tbs. Hummus should be creamy, not pasty. And the recipes you are using don't have much oil at all. A few other points:

• Use fresh lemon juice. Period.
• Tahini comes in raw and toasted. Both will work, but they have much different flavors.
• If you don't like the flavor of raw garlic, then, before you peel the clove, toast it in a dry frying pan until it softens first.
• Once you find a combination you like, play around with the quantities to make it better. You can really change the flavors and textures to something that suits you.

Good luck. Hummus is a wonderful thing.

[jsgksu]

The texture is fine, as far as pinpointing what tasted wrong, I don't even know how to explain it, it's not a taste I'm familiar with. I did taste some of the tahini by itself as I assumed that was the culprit since I'd never had it before, but it tasted fine.

I did not wash the beans at all... Could that be it? I'll feel so bad if it was. I read somewhere that you can use some of the liquid leftover from draining the can to soften the hummus (as my first batch was so dry it didn't even look like hummus) so I assumed if you could use the liquid as a thinner rinsing the peas wasn't that important. Also, the recipe didn't state to do that and as is probably rather apparent I'm not an experience cook.

Also:
I used bottle lemon juice
I believe my tahini is raw
I tried making it with and without garlic

But I'm fairly certain the problem lies with the beans or tahini as I would recognize the problem if it were the taste of the other ingredients I'm used to cooking with.

Thanks so far, I guess maybe I'll try it again with a rinse first. Any other ideas though?

[vyapti]

Salt might be another variable worth trying. Most canned beans have plenty of salt, but not all. I wouldn't think that rinsed/unrinsed beans would make a significant difference either way. Also, that much bottled lemon juice might make it taste off.

[PieSusan]

Nothing wrong with the Goya brand. As for the tahini as long as it was fresh and not stale--it should be fine.

When I make hummus with canned beans, I use one can as is and I drain the other and add some water instead.

[PieSusan]

I use fresh lemon juice but two lemons is way too much. The other thing is you don't have cumin in it. That also makes hummus taste like hummus.

Garlic will age in the spread so unless you are going to eat it all in one sitting, you don't want to add scads. It will taste much stronger the second day and can be almost bitter.

[PieSusan]

Welcome to DC jsgksu. There is another hummus thread that you might want to read.

[vyapti]

I'm on a Hummus Kick!

[Toots]

Use fresh lemons, add some cumin and I like a little fresh rosemary sprig on the top of the hummus once it has been whipped up - then a drizzle of olive oil. Add salt too.

I have been trying to make my hummus taste like the kind you get at Trader Joe's for years. Theirs is the best and its cheap.