Has anyone tried heating chickpeas in the microwave before making hummus? Cook's Illustrated

[curious1]

mentioned it a few years ago when Melissa Clark (NYT) wrote she processed home-cooked chickpeas while they were still warm and it made the hummus fluffier. Cook's Illustrated experimented with microwaving canned chickpeas and found the same to be true. They didn't give a recipe just said they microwaved the drained chickpeas for a minute.

I found a blog recipe on line that uses that method, microwaving the canned chickpeas with their liquid and garlic for 4 minutes and made hummus using the linked recipe with the still hot chickpeas. The hummus was exceptionally fluffy and smooth. My daughter loved it, I felt there could have been more lemon and less tahini but microwaving the beans definitely made a difference in the texture. I used a food processor and refrigerated the hummus overnight.

http://minimalistbaker.com/best-ever-5-minute-microwave-hummus/

 

[sallybr]

I will definitely be giving this a try next time I make hummus...

... although I will skip the garlic because I like hummus better without it.

still, I bet the improvement in texture will be major!

 

[judy-mass]

I am also going to give this a try.

I do add garlic and I also toss in a big fistful of parsley if I have it.

 

[curious1]

I agree on parsley. I've also used cilantro. This wasn't my favorite hummus recipe, but I thought

heating the chickpeas made a big different in texture that I found nice. However, heating the garlic muted the flavor a bit much for me. Next time I want to try my favorite recipe from Nick Stellino's Mediterranean Flavors and heat drained chickpeas without the garlic just a minute or so as Cook's Illustrated suggests. Some of their older recipes suggest processing the chickpeas before adding other ingredients to better break down the skins. I did that with the recipe above.