Don’t want to worry anyone unnecessarily, but there’s going to be a hummus shortage. It’s all a bit of a perfect storm situation. Russia is a huge exporter of chickpeas (who knew), and due to the war in Ukraine and the worldwide sanctions against Russia, it means that there’s a sizable deficit in supply coming down the pike.
According to recent reports, this shortfall is somewhere in the region of 250,000 tonnes per year that would otherwise be stocking our shelves, in fact. Around 20%.
This shortfall will also affect countries in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, which depend on the legumes more than we do, and will find prices escalating ever higher for something that is generally a cheap source of protein.
So yes, while you can - and perhaps should - make jokes about ‘How will Chorlton manage?’, there is a serious aspect to this.
But before you start edging slowly towards the door and nearer to Tesco, it’s worth considering how easy it is to make your own, and also that you can freeze it. So if hummus is a fridge staple in your house, this might not be such a bad idea.
It’s dead easy, and unlike making butter, which I did last week, there’s much less wasted byproduct, and the result is so good, you’ll wonder why you ever bought it pre-made in the first place - yes, yes, time and effort, ‘who can be bothered?’ and life’s too short. But anyway, I’ve bought the chickpeas now, so here we go…
The ingredients…
Two 400g cans of chickpeas
100g tahini
One large clove of garlic
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper
The chickpeas from Lidl proved the cheapest at 30p. A jar of tahini - sesame seed paste - is about £2.60, but will make you three, maybe four pretty big batches of hummus.
The method…
Drain the chickpeas, reserving the water from one of the cans in a bowl. Then throw everything in a food processor, or into a big bowl if you’re using a hand blender, and blitz. Once the chickpeas are pulped and sticking to the side of the mixer, stop it, scrape down the sides, and add some of the chickpea water until it goes smooth, which takes a few minutes. Then season with salt and pepper. Add more lemon if you think it needs it.
And that’s it. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over it if you like, and maybe some ground cumin or paprika. Whatever you've got in the house. For those feeling a sense of achievement, you could always go one step further and make your own pita bread, which, as bread goes, is a cinch too...
The Ingredients…
300g strong white flour
200g plain flour
335ml warm water
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon caster sugar
10ml sunflower oil
10g salt
The method…
Combine the flours, the yeast, the sugar, the oil and the warm water and mix until you have a ‘shaggy’, just-combined ball. Leave this for 10 minutes. Then add the salt and knead for a minute or two until you have a proper dough ball. It shouldn’t be too sticky, but if it is, put some oil on your surface when you're kneading, rather than more flour. Leave it covered in a bowl for 10 minutes, then do another very quick knead - 20 seconds tops - leave for another 10 minutes, then another 20 second knead. Then leave for half an hour.
Get your oven as hot as it will go (250c plus), with a baking sheet in it. Then divide the dough into 100g pieces, and roll into balls. Leave those for 10 minutes under a damp cloth. Then on a lightly floured surface roll out to either a circle or oval shape, and leave them again for another 10 minutes under cloth. Then bake three or four at a time for about four minutes, watching them puff up through the oven door.
Stack up on a wire rack to cool a bit, and once they have, pull off pieces of the airy, still-warm pita and drag them through your fresh hummus. Any pitas left - this should make eight or so - can be frozen and then toasted straight from the freezer whenever you need them.
Have you changed brands because of rising food costs? Would you pay more than £9 for a 1kg tub of butter? Let us know your views in the comments here.
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