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Dill pickle hummus with lemon and tahini
Creamy chickpea hummus with tahini, lemon and finely chopped dill pickles folded through after blending.
In this guide5 sections
Blend the chickpeas, keep the pickle pieces
Putting everything in the processor at once makes a smooth greenish hummus and loses most of the cucumber crunch. Our preference is to blend the chickpea base first, then stir the pickles through by hand. You can feel what the pickle adds, rather than relying on brine alone to announce it.
Yield: 6 small servings. Prep time: 15 minutes. Cook time: 0 minutes. Use a 400 g tin of chickpeas yielding about 240 g drained. The label weight includes liquid, so drain before weighing. Stir the tahini in its jar before measuring; separated sesame oil and a stiff paste make it harder to judge the hummus texture.
Ingredients
- 240 g (8½ oz) drained canned chickpeas, rinsed
- 45 g (3 tablespoons) well-stirred tahini
- 30 ml (2 tablespoons) lemon juice
- 15 ml (1 tablespoon) olive oil
- 1 small garlic clove, peeled
- 30 ml (2 tablespoons) cold water, plus up to 30 ml if needed
- 100 g (3½ oz) drained dill pickles
- 10 g fresh dill, chopped
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Method
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas in a sieve. Let them drain while you stir the tahini, measure the lemon juice and peel the garlic. Save a few minutes by gathering everything before starting the processor.
Let the chickpeas drain while the other ingredients are measured. - Blend the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and the first 30 ml cold water. Scrape down the bowl. The mixture may thicken at first; keep blending until it looks evenly creamy.
- Add the chickpeas and black pepper. Process for 2 minutes, pausing to scrape the sides, then check the texture. Add the reserved water a teaspoon at a time only if the blades struggle or the hummus is too stiff.
Pause the processor and scrape down the sides before checking the texture. - Chop the pickles into tiny cubes and blot them dry. Transfer the hummus to a bowl and fold in the pickle pieces and dill, scraping right to the bottom so the additions are not concentrated at the top.
Fold the pickle pieces and dill right through to the bottom. - Spoon onto a shallow plate and make a small hollow with the back of a spoon. Serve without an extra brine splash; the lemon already supplies the measured acidity.
Choose the texture you actually want
A powerful processor will make a smoother base, but a slightly grainy chickpea texture is perfectly workable. Extra water improves movement in the machine; extra processing improves smoothness. They solve different problems. Adding a lot of liquid simply to make the hummus look silky can leave you with a runny dip.
For a spread, stop adding water while the hummus still holds a ridge. It will sit more neatly in a sandwich and leave space for other ingredients. Thin a small serving separately if you want to spoon it over a salad.
Keep the beans whole for a chickpea salad with whole beans, or start this batch with homemade refrigerator pickles.
Keep the next portion cold
Refrigerate the finished hummus promptly in a covered container. Plan to use this small batch within two days; stir before serving again.
Keep cold during storage and serving; see the recipe library’s storage guidance.
Keep the jar open
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