Garlic Lover's Hummus

I have always been a big fan of hummus (I think I first tried it in college) which is a sort of middle-eastern bean dip made from cooked chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), garlic, tahini (a paste made from sesame seeds) and olive oil.

When my mom gave me a food processor for Christmas a couple of years ago I knew I would be making some homemade hummus - but for some reason, it took me a long time to get around to it.  I was encouraged by the fact that Rebecca tried store-bought hummus (the Central Market spicy red pepper stuff is very good) a few months back and liked it.

So without further ado, here was my first attempt:

Hardware:
Kitchen-Aid 16 cup food processor, standard blade attachment
flexible silicone spatula (for scraping the sides of the mixing bowl)

Software:
2 cans chickpeas, drained
10 cloves garlic, peeled
juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup)
2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup tahini
3 tablespoons olive oil
(optional) 2 diced sun-dried tomatoes

Place the drained chickpeas, garlic and salt in the workbowl of your food processor and spin on high for 15-20 seconds.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the lemon juice and tahini.  Spin an additional 15-20 seconds.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then while running the processor, drizzle in the olive oil (and add any additional garnishes you want mixed in.)

Serve immediately or chill in a covered container and serve cold.  Goes well with pita chips or whole-grain crackers.

You can use homemade cooked chickpeas (a pressure cooker lets you make a batch in about an hour) which will give you slightly better flavors, but honestly with 10 cloves of garlic that's the dominant flavor anyway.  A reasonable alternative could use less garlic and garnish with something like olive tapenade, capers or diced roasted peppers, all of which would be delicious as well.

One word of warning - although this is very healthy (and vegan!) food, it is VERY calorie dense.  The above recipe makes 10-12 servings of about 250 calories each, so this is more a meal than it is an appetizer.