Another title for this post could be “life’s too short to peal a chickpea”.

I’ve long been a fan of Mr Ottolenghi – I just love the enthusiasm and natural passion he has for food. I have to admit to having all his cookbooks. I have a lot of cookbooks……really a lot…..too many to count a lot.

Today I made the hummus from his book Jerusalem. It’s a real game changer for homemade hummus. No lumps! As smooth, if not smoother, than the shop bought stuff.

I hadn’t realised that the reason hummus generally comes out a bit grainy is the skins and as I said first off – life really is too short. So YO’s method is to put the chickpeas in a pan on a medium heat and stir in a teaspoon of baking soda and cook whilst stirring for about 3 minutes before adding the water. All the skins start to peel off and then when you add the water, you can gradually skim them all off the top of the pan. Then when you blitz them they turn into a really smooth paste. It’s pretty much the same process as mushy peas I guess.

Mushy peas makes me think of pease pudding and faggots……I may have to have a go at making that one day this week.