Harissa Chickpeas with Sticky Leeks and Fluffy Harissa Hummus with Za'atar | Rebel Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is harissa hummus made of? ›

If you want to go the extra mile for an extremely smooth hummus, cook the canned chickpeas in slightly salted water for 10 minutes. This may sounds strange, but the extra cooking time will soften them further and get you that smooth texture even if your blender is not that powerful.

Harissa is a fiery and garlicky North African spice paste that's traditionally served alongside bread, stews, and couscous dishes. Recipes vary widely but it's usually made with spices including caraway, cumin, and coriander, and sometimes herbs, like mint.

Originally from Tunisia, harissa is a chile sauce or paste typically made of dry red chiles, garlic, citrus, extra virgin olive oil and a few warm spices including cumin, coriander and caraway seeds.

Baking soda: Adding baking soda to the chickpeas helps make the legume easier to digest, softer, and makes them easy to peel. Don't skip this ingredient!

Read enough recipes for hummus, and you'll start to note that those promising extra-smooth texture all have one thing in common: peeling the chickpeas before blending.

Next, enhance the blank slate of flavor with a few squeezes of lemon juice, a sprinkling of garlic salt, a turn of freshly cracked pepper, a heavy-handed sprinkle of paprika, and a generous drizzle of your nicest olive oil. Bonus points if you have an herby olive oil on hand with a little color to it.

What Does Harissa Taste Like? If you've never tried this fiery sauce before, it has a very peppery, smoky flavor and can range in levels of heat, depending on which peppers and chiles make up the sauce. It also has a strong garlicky flavor that's brightened up with a kick of citrus.

Tahini sauce is made from a combination of ingredients, that start with a base of tahini, traditionally combined with water and lemon juice. In this recipe, we've also added harissa, which is a North African chili paste. The harissa adds a little spice and a lot of flavor to this recipe!

In short, yes, harissa can be pretty fiery. It all depends on the types of chillies used to make it. If the chillies are milder, the resulting harissa paste will be less spicy, and if the chillies are the blow-your-head-off sort, the harissa will pack a lot more punch.

What is hummus usually made of? ›

Hummus is a smooth and creamy puree of cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans), tahini and an acid, typically lemon juice. While hummus usually has garlic now, centuries ago it did not. Olive oil isn't a requirement either, but most modern recipes list it as an ingredient.