Hummus, the chickpea dip or spread usually enjoyed on a traditional flatbread called pita, is claimed as a native or national dish by many countries, most of them in Arab North Africa and the Middle East. It’s a bit like one child claiming to have been born to several mothers. We figure it isn’t, or even can’t, be true. But we don’t want to jump into an obviously bitter argument armed only with logic.
Most countries claiming to have given the world hummus (that’s the most popular spelling) agree on the basics. Recipes typically begin with round, off-white chickpeas, sometimes sold as garbanzo beans, and a paste of ground sesame seeds known as tahini. Other regular flavors in hummus include garlic, lemon juice and extra-virgin olive oil, plus the maker’s preference when it comes to salt and pepper. It’s a safe bet that most hummus, made at home or bought at the supermarket, follows this basic idea. It’s tried and true, and just about everybody loves it.
Still, these days, many flavored hummus variations range across tomato, onion and even Latin black bean, all the way to “dessert hummus” made with cookie dough and chocolate chips. Those flavors seem most popular in the choice-crazed United States, however, not in any of the countries that claim to have invented the tasty stuff in the first place.
The most important thing to understand about food history is that it’s part of people history, making it part of world history. And any time countries or cultures argue over who invented some delicious food, you can bet one of them invaded and conquered the other at some point in history. Conquest usually meant the winner “occupied” the loser, perhaps for hundreds of years, and that the two still don’t get along. Both groups end up eating, loving and claiming the same foods.
For all the claims, food historians tend to date the earliest versions of hummus to Egypt around the year 800. We know there were chickpeas and sesame seeds, olives and lemons. If people were lucky, they had some garlic around the kitchen. The earliest known recipe for hummus is recorded in a cookbook written in Cairo in the 13th century. The hummus itself is much as we enjoy it today, though the Egyptians also accompanied the spread with herbs, spices and nuts.
It took no time at all for the popularity of hummus to spread, thanks to trading by ship, to what are now Lebanon and Syria, a bit north of Egypt along the eastern Mediterranean. Still, as an Arab dish, perhaps its strangest popularity is in Israel, the Jewish state founded in 1948. Turns out, Israel not only made its home among Arab people in the area known as Palestine but attracted Jewish believers from every corner of the Arab world. Israelis added many of their own touches, including adding more tahini for a creamier texture and sprinkling the hummus with hot pepper sauce.
When both Arabs and Israelis immigrated elsewhere, including the United States and Canada, they brought their recipes for hummus with them. New York City became home to many of those immigrants and the first American city to fall in love with hummus.
Greece and Turkey arguably remain the ultimate slice of hummus history. The Turkish empire, known as the Ottomans, conquered and occupied Greece for hundreds of years, making no friends among the Greeks. Yet Greeks today consume endless bowls of originally Turkish hummus and pita, along with moussaka and other dishes made with eggplant. Both essential Greek foods came to Greece with their much-hated conquerors. On the island of Cyprus, with the land split between Greece and Turkey, each side of the line claims hummus for itself.
The island of Sicily had a similar encounter with cruel Arab armies known as Saracens. Many parts of Sicily love nothing better today than hummus on pita before digging into a meal of Arab-style couscous where you’d think the pasta ought to be.
Although hummus was made for centuries using simple stone tools to crush the chickpeas, the most common being a mortar and pestle, the modern world has intruded with convenience. Blenders and especially food processors do the job more quickly and easily, all as the maker adds olive, lemon and the other ingredients through a kind of spout on the top. Also, many companies now make hummus for sale in American supermarkets. The company dominating this market is called Sabra, selling more hummus than all other U.S. companies put together. Total sales of Sabra hummus are estimated at $1 billion per year.
Chefs in Israel and Lebanon have spent years competing over who can prepare the largest batch of hummus, as validated by the Guinness Book of World Records. The title has gone back and forth. One winning batch, made by three-hundred Lebanese chefs in a village near Beirut, weighed more than twenty-three thousand pounds.
RECIPE: HOMEMADE HUMMUS
Some true hummus purists insist on buying dried chickpeas (in a bag on the grocery6 shelf, like kidney beans or lentils) then soak them in water and boil them until they are tender. Many of us find we end up with the same product buying cooked chickpeas in a can. Cooking chickpeas requires no skill, but it takes hours.
Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic
2 cups canned chickpeas, drained with 1 cup liquid reserved
1-2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup tahini paste
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional
2 tablespoons water from chickpeas
1 tablespoon minced dried parsley
Paprika for garnish
Pita or pita chips for scooping
In a food processor, minced the garlic cloves, then add the remaining ingredients except paprika and pita. Add additional chickpea water (or olive oil) to make the hummus creamier. Add more salt if desired. Transfer to a serving bowl, pour a pool of olive oil in the center and sprinkle with paprika. Serve with pita or pita chips. Makes about 2 ¾ cups of hummus.
