I love dips, and hummus is no exception. I usually eat it with carrot sticks, olives or homemade crackers. You can make similar bean dips with other types of beans, but hummus traditionally contains chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans). I soak and cook chickpeas myself. Check out this post on cooking black beans if you haven’t cooked your own beans before. Here are the ingredients I use to make hummus:

• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked and cooked (I bought them in bulk with a cloth bag. Or maybe a jar. I don’t remember. But there wasn’t plastic involved!)
• 2 tbsp tahini (The brand I got, Once Again, is in a glass jar with a metal lid.)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (I got the lemon from my lemon tree. Planting a lemon tree if you have room is something you’ll never regret doing. They’re not too difficult to take care of and they’ll provide an endless bounty of lemons. They’ll save you money too. Lemons are 59 cents apiece right now at the store I go to and they’re waxed, which makes them difficult to zest.)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt (I like using pure sea salt instead of table salt, which contains anti-caking agents. Himalayan pink salt is my favorite salt, but its expensive so I don’t usually have it on hand.)
• 1 clove peeled garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Add the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, salt and garlic to a food processor. Process until smooth.

While food processor is running, slowly pour in olive oil. (My food processor is broken and only runs when I hold the lid down, so that’s why my hand is there in the picture.)

Process until all the oil is mixed in and the mixture is smooth.

You’ll get more than that, but before I took the picture I ate some so it looks like less. Enjoy!