This is a recipe from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. I’ve made it three times now and I’m not sure I will ever be willing to try a different one (caveat: homemade tahini). As far as I can tell, there are two crucial bits to the methodology—starting with dry beans so they can be cooked beyond the tenderness you get from a can, and using a food scale.

I started by soaking 1 lb of dried garbanzo beans overnight. This is more than the recipe calls for, but I wanted some extras to use in a curry, or a salad.

These are the remaining ingredients: tahini, lemons, garlic, salt, and baking soda. Oh, also some ice water.

270 g tahini, 4 cloves crushed garlic

¼ cup lemon juice (I used 1 ½ lemons to get this amount).

Garbanzo beans were boiled with 1 tsp baking soda until they could be crushed easily between two fingers, about an hour. While they cook, a white film builds up that should be skimmed off periodically. When finished, 600 g of the cooked beans were weighed out with a spider.

This is the quantity of leftover beans from the original pound of dried beans.

Cooked beans processed for a few minutes.

Tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and 1 ½ tsp salt added first. 100 mL ice water drizzled in second.

Processed to an extremely smooth, frosting-like consistency.

Pita and paprika to serve.