Hummus

Method

1. The night before, put 60 g dried chickpeas in a bowl with 0.25 tsp bicarbonate of soda and cover with at least 5 cm of cold water. Leave to soak 12 hours at room temperature; they should swell to roughly double their size.
2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, tip them into a small saucepan with the remaining 0.25 tsp bicarbonate of soda and cover generously with fresh cold water. Bring to the boil, skim off the grey foam and the loose skins that rise, then simmer gently, partly covered, for about 60 minutes. They are ready when a chickpea collapses to a paste under light pressure from your thumb — undercooked chickpeas will never blend smooth. Drain, keeping about 100 ml of the cooking liquid, and keep them warm.
3. While they cook, blend 1 clove of garlic with 1.5 tbsp of lemon juice and 0.5 tsp of salt in a food processor or with a hand blender. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes, then strain out the garlic solids if you want a gentler flavour — this takes the raw bite off the garlic.