It makes me cringe to see the prices they charge for a container of hummus at the grocery store. It’s much less expensive to make it yourself, it only takes 10 minutes and it tastes so fresh you won’t want store-bought hummus again.

This will keep in the fridge for days but drizzle a little good quality olive oil on top and leave it on the kitchen table with a few toasted pita wedges and it won’t make it to the fridge. You can add more garlic if you like or a little chopped hot pepper. Roasted garlic works well too. To really dress it up, top the hummus with some sautéed ground beef or lamb seasoned with a little sumac.

Classic hummus

1-1/2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in water overnight (or two tins)

Juice of two lemons (more or less to taste)

1/3 cup of tahini

1/2 cup water (use the cooking water from the chickpeas or tap water if you are using canned chickpeas)

2-3 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt

Olive oil

A sprinkle of paprika or sumac

Cook the soaked chickpeas in six cups of water for 90 minutes until very tender.

Place cooled chickpeas (or rinsed canned peas) in a food processor and add garlic. Pulse until roughly chopped. Add lemon juice, tahini, cumin and water and pulse until smooth. Add more water if the mixture is too thick. Add salt to taste and pulse again.

Serve sprinkled with a little sumac or paprika and a good drizzle of quality olive oil. Toast a few pita wedges (350 F oven for 10 minutes or so until crisp) to scoop up the hummus. Enjoy.