Nice Spread: Subcontinental Hummus

Playing a standard in a different key

I make a lot of hummus and hummus-adjacent things. Homemade hummus, using soaked and cooked dried chick peas, is much, much better than the stuff you get at the store. It’s also superior to versions made with canned chick peas, in part because you can infuse flavor into them when you cook them yourself. Free life-improving tip: soak and cook dried beans—they’re as cheap and healthy as food gets, they taste amazing when cooked with care, and they’re packed with that protein stuff that everyone’s frenzied about.

I shared my recipe for a Mexican-inspired riff, which I dubbed jummus, over at Lukas Volger’s place last year. This time around I want to talk about a new invention, one that retains the fundamental character of the spread but transports it from the Middle East to South Asia. It seemed a logical transposition, given the incredible variety of legume dishes from that part of the world, and the result was pretty damn delicious.

Of course I love slathering my homemade hummus on bread, and having made this I realize that the next thing I need to make and write up is my naan recipe—because while this kills on my standard sourdough, it’ll be positively incandescent on some scalliony flatbread. So stay tuned for that next week after I dial in the ratios you need for fluffy, restaurant-quality tenderness at home.

Come to think of it, should I have naan be this month’s video class for all you brilliant and discerning paid subscribers? That could be fun. Maybe I’ll even fire up the pizza oven and we can have class outside, because it’s spring. Looks like the weekend of April 27-28 will be the time, and I’ll let you all know shortly which day we’ll do it. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber you may want to upgrade, because last month’s class was a ton of fun and now there’s all sorts of activity in the garden so maybe I’ll start off with a tour before we get baking.

Ok, to get you in the mood for those warm, pillowy flatbreads, here’s the recipe for this luminous, leguminous tour de force. It’s easy, it’s vegan, and it’s seriously addictive. I meant to scoop the contents of the bowl in the photo into a container after tasting it for quality control, but I ended up eating most of it (on bread, obviously).