Hummus with Lemon, Fried Garlic, and Chile

Another from Ottolenghi’s Flavor book, this hummus variation looks and tastes fantastic, with crispy fried garlic, chiles, and ginger in aromatic oil drizzled on top.

Ingredients

Hummus

• scant 2 cups/300g Basic Cooked Chickpeas or canned chickpeas, drained
• 1/3 oz/10g fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed
• 2 lemons - finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp ice-cold water
• 3/4 tsp flaked sea salt

Fried Aromatics

• 6 tbsp/90ml olive oil
• 3 red chiles, seeded and finely sliced
• 3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1/2 oz/15g fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 oz/15g cilantro sprigs, roughly chopped
• flaked sea salt

Optional

• crusty bread to serve

Instructions

1. For the hummus: Put the chickpeas, ginger, olive oil, tahini, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, water, and salt into a food processor and blitz until smooth, scraping down the sides as you go if necessary. Set aside.
2. For the aromatics: Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Once hot, add the chiles, garlic, ginger, and cinnamon and fry for 4-5 minutes, stirring every once in a while to separate the garlic slices, until the aromatics are starting to become golden. Add the cilantro and fry for 1 minute more, until the garlic is a light golden brown and the chiles are aromatic. Transfer the aromatics to a plate with a slotted spoon (reserving the oil) and sprinkle them generously with salt.
3. Spoon the hummus onto a large plate, creating a shallow well in the center with the back of the spoon. Spoon the aromatic oil inside the well. Top with the fried aromatics and serve with bread to mop up the oil.