Msabbaha

Massabbaha

A dish that Roy introduced me to last year. Which we prepared with much love and care in Ericeira and ate in the autumn sun while talking about food from the Middle East.

Ingredients:

2 jars of chickpeas

1 small onion, roughly chopped

1 small stick of celery, roughly chopped

1 small carrot, roughly chopped

2 medium garlic cloves

2 bay leaves

350ml tahini sauce

3 lemon

50g parsley leaves

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt, pepper

Za'atar, paprika, toasted pine nuts and/or chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Warm bread, to serve

Preparation:

Add chickpeas, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, bay leaves and 1.5 l water in a pot and boil over high heat. Bring to a simmer, cover with a slightly open lid and cook until the chickpeas are quite soft and almost disintegrate for about 30 minutes. Check on the chickpeas occasionally and add more water if needed, they should always be fully submerged.

Leave to cool slightly.

Discard the onion, garlic, celery, carrot, and bay leaves. Drain the chickpeas and reserve the cooking water.

In a blender or food processor, combine the tahini sauce with about a quarter of the cooked chickpeas and puree until you have a thick, but pourable, milkshake-like consistency. Dilute with some of the reserved cooking liquid if needed (but be careful not to dilute too much at once. Season to taste with salt.

In a mixing bowl, combine the tahini mixture with the remaining chickpeas and parsley. Stir until everything is well mixed and the chickpeas are coated with a creamy sauce. You can refrigerate the hummus at this point; it will thicken even more in the fridge.

Transfer to a serving platter, drizzle with olive oil and garnish with toppings of your choice. Serve with warm bread.