Hummus

[thaiIand]

Any company makes hummus base that we can buy by the 500g/kg?

Tired of buying small humus pre-made packs at villa for a fortune

[Dirk_brijs]

why dont you make yourself??

aint that difficult to make?

Chickpeas, Tahini (sesame seeds crushed) lemon and garlic thats it

if you need more details just ask

[thaiIand]

well in canada we had those big cans of chickpeaks and tahini mixed together ready for you to put olive oil and other stuff in it so it would be easy.. i havent even seen chickpeas here. I am in phuket

[rice555]

Hello All, This is what I get here in Korat,

you can get this or dried in BKK at Villa.

439g

rice555

[Jingthing]

Speak of the devil!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2011/12/28/a_hummus_recipe_that_s_way_better_than_store_bought_.html

[tutsiwarrior]

no one is ever gonna put peanut butter in my hummus, godammit!...in a small minimart on a power station site in the desert 75km south of Jeddah they got tahini...not just for hummous but for the ubiquitous sauce that you put on everything in the Middle East...

I've burned the motors out of lots of blenders making hoummous and you really need a food processor...but you can only get cooked, canned garbanzos (see photo above) in selected supermarkets in BKK so I haven't bothered in Thailand...

the wife is always amused when we find canned chick peas/garbanzos in BKK supermarkets and I start to breathe heavily...I useta bring back gallon tubs of tahini in my luggage when working in the ME...

Edited January 1, 2012 by tutsiwarrior

[sheepshank]

McGarret Dried Chickpeas, 500gm pack, 99 baht, at Tesco.

[thaiIand]

found the chickpeas at supercheap for 63baht a can(same one pictured above from villa)

Now for the sesame seeds crushed(ill guess this is paste?)

is there a thai name? we couldnt find those at super cheap.

[Jingthing]

In expat heavy cities, tahini sesame paste is easy to buy at expat targeted supermarkets (and very expensive). If not, why not try out the peanut butter idea? Pure would be best with no sugar or chemicals.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Jingthing

[sheepshank]

hi thailand, I'm pleased you've managed to find some canned chickpeas, that's waay better than paying OTT prices for the ready made product. The McGarrett dried ones at Tesco come out even cheaper if they are available in the Phuket branch/es (I am in Khon Kaen).

There is no need to buy your sesame seeds crushed, even if you could find them. The whole seeds are widely available in most Thai market places and they are very cheap. They are called "ngar keo" (please excuse my poor pronounciation as I am receiving conflicting reports from various family members and as we are in Issan the pronounication could be different compared with the south.

Once you have found your "ngar keo", toast them in a pan over a medium heat then crush them using a pestle and mortar before adding them to your chickpeas with the other ingredients

Trust me, I've been making hummus for years in Thailand using basic, readily available ingredients, at rock bottom prices. There is absolutely no need to pay "silly money" for hummus if you know where to look for the ingredients.

Good luck!

[lazygourmet]

Ordered it from Shoshana

[thaiIand]

thanks sheep. i thought it was more complicated, will just buy the seeds and toast them and crush them myself. We already do this for satay sauces with peanuts

[rice555]

Hello All, I picked these up on my diet coke run to Makro Korat.

ric555

[Jayman]

I just made my first batch of hummus today from suggestions in this thread. It was great. I've been disappointed far too many times when i goto my favorite kabab shop and they have none so it's great to be making it at home. I found all the ingredients at lotus. They had the dried chick peas for 99thb port 1/2 kilo which is plenty to make like 5 batches. They had a selection of white sesame seeds to choose from as well for cheap. The rest of the stuff is easily found in most thai kitchens.

I'm so glad I found this thread as it's opened my eyes to how much better things can taste when you make them yourself.

I also found a mediterranean recipe site on google with a ton of humus variations that i intend to try including a lemon and ginger humus. I'm sure if you google it you will easily find it as mediterranean is in the domain name.

Good luck to all and thanks for the great tips and suggestions.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

[Jayman]

oopps.. I gave some wrong info.. the site that has a ton of different hummus recipes is http://mideastfood.about.com/od/middleeasternfood101/a/hummus101.htm

Edited January 15, 2012 by Jayman

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I've been making my own hummus at home here for the past couple years...the most important element being a good electric food processor to handle the blending...

I usually start with two cans of the S&W garbanzos...avail. at Villa and Foodland Markets usually for 65 to 69 baht per can. The dried bulk packages are available there too, but they require cooking and then skinning after cooking. So it's just easier to work with the already ready canned varieties...

Villa also has Du Chef brand canned white breans... And I like a variation that uses one can of garbanzos along with one can of white beans.... Actually, I originally found a white bean blended dip recipe, and decided to mix that recipe into the traditional hummus recipe.

Lime juice easy to find everywhere, as well as fresh limes. Same with garlic. Jarred tahini is available at Villa markets in BKK and some other places, but it's expensive. Raw sesame seeds as mentioned above are cheaper... And bottles of virgin olive oil likewise are easy to find at any larger farang type market, usually the best price around 180-200 baht for a litre bottle.

And don't forget, both Villas and Foodland markets typically stock both whole and mini pita bread packages... which you're going to want to go along with your hummus.

BTW, I've been meaning to check whether any of the Indian grocery shops around BKK stock canned plain varieties of chickpeas/garbanzos that might be more economical than the S&W variety imported from the U.S.

Edited January 15, 2012 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Crushdepth]

You can buy tahini from Villa.

[edwardandtubs]

An easy way is to stick all the ingredients (including the whole sesame seeds) in a blender and leave it going until it reaches the desired consistency. Add water if required. You can buy ready roasted sesame seeds.

[HerbalEd]

why dont you make yourself??

aint that difficult to make?

Chickpeas, Tahini (sesame seeds crushed) lemon and garlic thats it

if you need more details just ask

Also olive oil, some cumin and a wee bit of salt. But it ain't that easy. One must soak and cook the chickpeas (aka garbonzo beans) just right (well cooked, but not too much). The thani must be made from hulled sesame seeds, or else it is bitter.

Meanwhile one can get excellent traditional hummus and other Middle Eastern food at Little Arabia area from Suk. Soi 3 to Soi 5.

[HerbalEd]

I've been making my own hummus at home here for the past couple years...the most important element being a good electric food processor to handle the blending...

I usually start with two cans of the S&W garbanzos...avail. at Villa and Foodland Markets usually for 65 to 69 baht per can. The dried bulk packages are available there too, but they require cooking and then skinning after cooking. So it's just easier to work with the already ready canned varieties...

Villa also has Du Chef brand canned white breans... And I like a variation that uses one can of garbanzos along with one can of white beans.... Actually, I originally found a white bean blended dip recipe, and decided to mix that recipe into the traditional hummus recipe.

Lime juice easy to find everywhere, as well as fresh limes. Same with garlic. Jarred tahini is available at Villa markets in BKK and some other places, but it's expensive. Raw sesame seeds as mentioned above are cheaper... And bottles of virgin olive oil likewise are easy to find at any larger farang type market, usually the best price around 180-200 baht for a litre bottle.

And don't forget, both Villas and Foodland markets typically stock both whole and mini pita bread packages... which you're going to want to go along with your hummus.

BTW, I've been meaning to check whether any of the Indian grocery shops around BKK stock canned plain varieties of chickpeas/garbanzos that might be more economical than the S&W variety imported from the U.S.

Skin chickpeas?? I've been cooking them for several decades and have never had to ... nor heard of .... "skinning" them.

Also, besides being too expensive, canned chickpeas are far less flavorful than cooking your own.

Also, the ready-mix dried hummus mixes are the worst way to make hummus. It's not the real deal.

[Spoonman]

I buy my Hummus/creamed cheese/Feta cheese etc from here.

http://www.homemade-cheese.com/

Email them for a price list.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Skin chickpeas?? I've been cooking them for several decades and have never had to ... nor heard of .... "skinning" them.

When I've bought dried packages of garbanzo beans at the stores here, and then boiled them at home, they ended up with almost like a semi-translucent skin that came off the exteriors of the beans.

[bina]

yes. skin the chickpeas. thats what we do. thats what anyone that makes humous in israel does. we stand and deskin the peas. but there are ways and ways to de skin them. btw, a note of caution, homemade humous is deadly after two or three days in a decent refridgerator. its spoils really really quickly. we prefer to buy it; albeit with stabilizers and preservatives in it, but it survives that way for a week or so in the fridge and the kids can take it in sandwiches to school/

and that also is another BTW: we have about 25-30 kinds of humous: lebanoni, jerusalem, druze, abu gosh, with rough ground garbanzo beans, finely ground, whole beans, with ful (fava beans), with shaata (hot peppers) , with tahina on top, with green tehina on top (tehina with ground parsley), with pine nuts and olive oil on top, hebroni,with ground lamb meat on top... plus every arab village has its local specialties, and every israeli housewife/or man with a middle easter/north african heritage has a recipe from a grandmother... our kids cannot eat shnitzel in pita w/o humous/chips (the equivaalent of ketchup and pickles on a sandwich , i guess),

we use the dry varieties (and there aer preferred varieties: egyptian, syrian, bulgarian etc), soak night before with baking soda, then cook... wash, de skin, grind... and frankly, i prefer to buy it as its too much work for such a small amount.

tehina, mix with small or larger amounts of water, crushed garlic, some olive oil, fresh lemon, stir for a long time then serve , or sprinkle fresh parsley on the top, or grind with parsley (or beets, or raw pumpkin for pink or orange and flavoure tehina) -

i found a site called humus.101 but its all in hebrew but perhaps u can skip around and/or get translated... i forgot one thing we also use: citric acid powder... its someting we use a lot in salads and stuff... goes in the tehina also....

the canned garbanzoes are not really good for making creamy humous but rather for making cooked humous beans with onions and meat.

bina

[LiorW]

btw, a note of caution, homemade humous is deadly after two or three days in a decent refridgerator. its spoils really really quickly. we prefer to buy it; albeit with stabilizers and preservatives in it, but it survives that way for a week or so in the fridge and the kids can take it in sandwiches to school/

We, in Israel, make home made Hummus and can keep it in the refridgerator for at least a week. There is absolutely no problem with that. The ones you buy with stabilizers and preservatives, however, are the deadly (I'm sure you know what it is like when you need to relieve yourself at the toilets few hours later )

[bina]

really lior: u should know that humous , in every recipe ive come across all say: not more then three days for home made humous. and yes the urban myth of what goes in the humous at abu gosh, well, we live five mintues from there so i eat where the other guys eat... never had a problem . as for store bought, hubby was keeping a whole plastic container of the stuff in his back pack while working out doors in the vineyards and never had a problem, but then , he's thai so maybe his stomach can hack it.

latest recipe from 'ha isha) (woman magazine) the 'shef' magazine from the tu'bvshvat food section page 11

300 grams cooked garbanzo beans that have been cooled at least two hours

4 garlic cloves, peeled

2 tablspoons of water

1 cup of raw tehina

juice of two lemons

1/4 tspn camun

grind of the beans and garlic in a food procesor, add the water and keep grinding. add the tehina, lemon juice camun and salt.

up to three days in fridge.

serve with olive oil and paprika sprinkled on top; or chopped parsley; or some whole peas that u didnt grind up, or cooked fava beans (ful) on top...

eat with fresh pita/

[tutsiwarrior]

in saudi when I was there last I useta buy the in-house supermarket prepared hoummus (plastic tray wrapped in cellophane) and it was only usually good for 3 days in the fridge...no matter as for my Friday afternoon repast I'd get hoummus, tabouleh, baba ganoush an moutabal and gobble 'em down with fresh arabic bread and the stuff wouldn't be in the fridge past the next day...they always kept all the arab mezze knoshes together in the same cabinet at the supermarket, easy shopping...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

oopps.. I gave some wrong info.. the site that has a ton of different hummus recipes is http://mideastfood.a...a/hummus101.htm

That's a really great recipe resource for hummus lovers...

Apart from using chickpeas, I've already on my own used black beans and white beans in the past... And those are really good as well... I've also mixed one can of garbanzos/chickpeas with a can of white beans, which gives it a creamier texture without even using any tahini.

But I never thought of some of the combinations suggested there, such as using canned pumpkin instead, or zucchini, or even adding a jalapeno for added spice...

Back in the States, Trader Joes Markets, before I left, really expanded their range of pre-prepared hummus dips, which were very popular... And they had a cilantro hummus version which was delicious as well... Reminds me I ought to try that at home here.

[bina]

CANNED pumpkin?! the horror the horror....

cooked fresh pumpkin and the like do not mix in with humous. mix it in with the tehina that u will use as a sauce on top of the humouos: fresh beets, cooked pumkin, parsley (not together) blended in is good .

chopped cuzbara (cilantro) chopped and sprinkled on the humous; however, cilantro is one of those herbs that people either love or hate and cause many an arguement in houses here (akin to the praa raa question).

hummous with chopped lamb and pine nuts is also yummy...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

You gotta open your mind and not be constrained by tradition, Bina...

Whether you want to label it "hummus" or not, that's a separate matter.

But a blended dip of half pumpkin and half garbanzos, along with the other standard hummus ingredients, sounds pretty good to me... Same with some of the other varieties.

[bina]

chiccy boutiqui hummous; new age humous.... sushi humous... dont worry, tel aviv is more adventerous then i am as far as humous goes, but i fear my son would divorce me if i served anything more then just hummous olive oil zaatar (oregano/sesame/sumac mix)pne nuts and pitas. and we are strictly divided about aallowing the use of cuzbara (cilantro) in on or near any food. or even in the fridge. and so far, anon seems to be the only thai that ive met working here that worships humous (as his paunch shows). the fact that he had a running bill in a local restaurant in abu gosh for half kilo containers of humous per day! only goes to show....(felafal being a choice food only when doing visa days.)

now is working in the sushi fields of the big city.