Hoummous Soup (Chickpeas soup)

Hoummous or hummus, there are almost as many ways of spelling this as there are recipes for it. Based on the marvelous Middle Eastern dip, this soup is now part of the Cypriot cuisine for centuries now.

This soup can be a starter or a filling lunch, when accompanied with pitta bread or croutons.

Preparation time: 30’

Cooking time: 1 - 1 1/2 hours

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 cups of chickpeas
• 2 - 3 tablespoons of tahini
• Salt
• 2 cloves of garlic
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• finely chopped parsley
• croutons or pita bread
  

Directions:

Soak the chick peas in water from the previous night.

Drain and peel them. It is preferable to buy skinned chick peas.

Boil in unsalted water, skim the liquid water and drain once. Add fresh water and boil again. Add salt, lower heat, cover with lid and simmer until soft.

For 1 plate: Put a ladleful of boiled chickpeas in the blender with 1 garlic clove, (add more if you like or ½ if you don’t like garlic) a teaspoonful of tahini, salt and a spoonful of olive oil. Add lemon juice and some food fluid (just enough to enable food processor to puree them). Place in a soup plate and add additional boiling liquid from the pan and mix together to make a soup as thick as you like. Adjust the taste by adding extra olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper (optional)l and stir. Sprinkle with parsley on top.

As I had no pita bread I prepared and served it with croutons (see recipe).

Tags: Cypriot, Dried legumes, Soups