No.26 The 100 Most Popular Recipes Ever · October 2026

Hummus with tehina

Made famous by Michael Solomonov

Photo: Beyrouthhh, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From Zahav, 2015.

Hummus became one of the most eaten dips in the world in the 2010s. Solomonov's version, very smooth and heavy on tehina, is the one serious home cooks swear by.

Written in our own words and tested in a home kitchen. Get the original in Zahav.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (300 g) dried chickpeas
• 2 tsp baking soda, divided
• For the tehina sauce: 1 head garlic, cloves peeled
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp fine salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 cups (480 g) tehina (tahini), well stirred
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups (240 to 360 ml) ice water
• Olive oil, paprika or sumac, and chopped parsley, to serve

Steps

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight in plenty of water with 1 teaspoon baking soda. Drain and rinse.
2. Put them in a large pot with the other teaspoon of baking soda and cold water to cover by 4 inches. Bring to a boil, skim, then simmer 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until they are completely soft and mash easily between your fingers, almost falling apart. Drain.
3. Meanwhile make the tehina sauce: blend the garlic, lemon juice and salt in a food processor until finely puréed. Let stand 10 minutes so the garlic mellows, then strain out the solids.
4. Return the lemon to the processor with the cumin and tehina and blend. With the machine running, add the ice water a few tablespoons at a time until the sauce is pale, smooth and thick, like soft-serve. You'll have about 4 cups; you need about 1 1/2 cups for the hummus.
5. Put the warm chickpeas in the processor with 1 1/2 cups of the tehina sauce and process 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down, until very smooth and fluffy. Add more tehina sauce or a little water to loosen, and taste for salt and lemon.
6. Spread in a shallow bowl with a well in the middle. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with paprika and parsley, and serve warm or at room temperature with pita.

Chef's tips

• The extra tehina sauce keeps a week in the fridge and is good on roasted vegetables.
• Canned chickpeas work in a pinch: simmer them 20 minutes with 1/2 teaspoon baking soda first.

This is Chef Amazing's write-up of the dish, tested for a home kitchen. The original is in Zahav by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook: get the book, No. 32 on The 100 Greatest Cookbooks.

← No. 25Shakshuka→ No. 27Beef pho