Bon Appetit 2015 Dish of the Year…A Creamy Dreamy Hummus Anyone Can Make

 

I am a huge fan of Bon Appetit magazine and can spend hours drooling over their recipes. Every year they choose a “dish of the year” from amid all the delectable restaurants they’ve dined at and this year it was a simple hummus dish. But after reading the recipe and how Chef Michael Solomonov creates this creamy concoction, you realize that while the steps themselves may be simple to do, this is no “simple” hummus.

The dish, Zahav’s Hummus Tehina, can be found at modern Israeli restaurant Zahav in Philadelphia. Chef Solomonov, a 2011 James Beard Award winner for “Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic,” uses dried chickpeas, which soak overnight in baking soda to lower the pH and soften their skin, and uses only one brand of tahini, which is what helps elevate this dish to be described as “an unearthly cloud, with a haunting, smoky, nutty pulse.”

I’ve made hummus lots and lots of times and have never made it in quite this way. There are several steps which take more time than my usual “open a can of chickpeas and blend them all up with other ingredients, being ready within minutes” recipe but then, I’ve never made a “dish of the year” or won a cooking award.

I personally have not tried this recipe…yet. Because the tahini used is a very specific brand, and what helps elevate this above other hummus dishes, I wanted to have the exact ingredients Chef Solomonov uses. Any excellent quality tahini can be used but he uses Soom Foods tahini. Soom Foods tahini isn’t cheap but sometimes a splurge really is worth it and I said what the heck, I’m ordering this and am going to do it up right.

I’ve ordered the tahini and plan on making this for a small get-together we’re planning later this month and can’t wait to try it and see what everyone thinks. Here’s the link to Soom Foods tahini.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_grocery?ie=UTF8&field-brandtextbin=Soom+Foods&node=16310101

The rest of the ingredients are super affordable (dried chickpeas, garlic, baking soda, lemon, olive oil, etc.) which helps offset the tahini price. If using the higher-priced Soom Foods tahini, this will cost approximately $8 to $9, not much more than the hummus I typically buy at the grocery store.  And this dish is gluten-free, vegan, Kosher and non-GMO.

I’ll let you know what my guests and I think after trying this but in the meantime, hee’s the recipe for Bon Appetit’s 2015 Dish of the Year… “Zahav’s Hummus Tehina”

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/03/30/zahav_s_hummus_recipe.html