Hummus with Roasted Root Vegetables with homemade cooked chickpeas and homemade raw tahini

👨‍🍳 Method

For the homemade cooked chickpeas ✓ Homemade · or skip – back to store-bought

1. 1
   Soak the chickpeas overnight in plenty of cold water.

   Bowl

   💡Soak in plenty of water, well above what's being soaked: legumes and grains swell and drink water, and whatever sticks out stays hard. Drain well before continuing.
2. 2
   Drain, cover with plenty of unsalted water and cook 1.5–2 hours, skimming off the foam and skins from time to time, until the chickpeas are very soft and crush easily between your fingers.

   ColanderStovePot

   💡Fully cooked chickpeas crush between your fingers with no resistance at all. Chickpeas that stay a little firm make a grainy spread, and no amount of tahini will fix it.
3. 3
   Drain, reserving a cup of the cooking liquid.

   Colander

For the Cooked chickpeas

1. 4
   Drain, reserving a cup of the cooking liquid.

   Colander

For the Tahini sauce

1. 5
   Grind the sesame seeds in a powerful blender about 3 minutes, until smooth paste forms.

   Blender

   💡At first the sesame looks like dry crumbs: keep grinding, scraping down the sides, and after a few minutes it releases its oil and turns liquid.

   💡In a food processor, grind in short pulses and check between pulses: it's easy to go from coarse to paste. (Sesame for tahini, on the other hand, is ground continuously.)
2. 6
   Taste and adjust the seasoning.
3. 7
   Mix the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and cumin and season with salt.

For the Roasted Vegetables

1. 8
   Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F).

   Oven

   💡Put things in the oven only once it's reached temperature, after the heating light has gone off: an oven that hasn't reached temperature changes baking times, and the bake burns outside or stays underbaked.
2. 9
   In a bowl, toss the vegetables, beets and sweet potato with part of the olive oil, the paprika and the salt.

   Bowl
3. 10
   Spread on a baking sheet in a single layer, without crowding.

   Baking pan
4. 11
   Roast the vegetables, beets and sweet potato in a hot oven (200°C / 390°F) 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the edges are browned.

   OvenBaking pan

   💡Give it room in the pan: crowded vegetables steam instead of browning.

To assemble

1. 12
   Transfer the tahini sauce to a food processor, add the chickpeas, still warm, and process 3–5 minutes, until it is completely smooth.

   Food processor

   💡Grind the chickpeas while they are still warm: warm chickpeas grind into a smoother cream than cold ones.
2. 13
   Gradually add the water, until the hummus is creamy and airy, and a little thinner than the texture you want: it thickens as it stands.

   💡Ice water, not ordinary water, gives hummus an airy, pale texture: the tahini emulsifies with it like mayonnaise.
3. 14
   Spread on a wide serving plate and arrange the roasted vegetables on top. Drizzle the rest of the olive oil over it.