Homemade Hummous

Outside of the millions of soy products available in Japan (edamame, miso, tofu, natto, soy sauce, soy milk etc etc) this place is not a bean country. The range of beans at the local grocery store is sparse to say the least, so you are even less likely to find any sort of delicious bean products, especially middle-eastern foods. Luckily chick-peas (or garbanzo beans as we call them in California) have become popular of late and are showing up more and more at the local grocers. Assuming you find those chick-peas (in Japanese they are called hiyoko-mame – literally chick-bean), the rest is quite simple.

what you need:
1 can Chick-peas (Garbanzo beans, hiyoko mame)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 TBSP Lemon juice
1 clove Garlic
3 TBSP Tahini (sesame paste)

Directions: dump one can of chick-peas into the blender or food processor. If you were a dumbass and bought a bag of dried beans then you are gonna have to pre-soak them over night before you begin this step. This recipe is pretty forgiving so you don’t really need to measure all that much. Dump in the yogurt, lemon juice, and tahini. Tahini is very difficult (nigh impossible) to find in Japan, but it can be easily substituted with unseasoned sesame paste which you can find anywhere in Japan (a common ingredient in Japanese cooking). I have even heard of people using peanut butter but I imagine that would really affect the consistency – better stick with sesame. You can chop up a clove of garlic but in Japan they sell these little tubes of raw garlic paste which is even better and much faster.

Some optional ingredients would be a single mint leaf (for a nice subtle under flavor) which could be substituted with half a leaf of shiso which is cheap as chips here in Japan. Also traditional hummous uses olive oil which I left out because its expensive. If you like a dash of olive oil could improve the consistency and give it a pleasant, more aromatic flavor. Then simply blend it all together and use it any way hummous is used (I recommend it on fresh vegetables!)