How to Make Hummus in a Food Processor

Grainy, pasty hummus almost always comes down to one of two things: not enough liquid, or chickpeas that never got broken down far enough before the tahini and oil went in. A food processor fixes both — the S-blade runs continuously instead of pulsing, which is exactly what you want for a smooth puree instead of the choppy texture a blender's narrower jar tends to leave around the edges.

The method below works in any full-size processor with a standard S-blade, including the Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup and Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro. A 3-4 cup mini chopper like the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus can handle a single can's worth in a pinch, but it's working at its limit — size notes are in the FAQ below.

Why a food processor gets smoother results than a blender

A blender jar is tall and narrow, which is great for liquids but leaves chunks of chickpea stuck to the walls above the blade where they never get pulled back down. A food processor's wide, shallow bowl keeps everything moving past the blade, so the whole batch breaks down evenly instead of leaving an unblended ring at the top.

Unlike pulsing butter into pie dough, hummus wants the processor running continuously for a minute or two at a time. Short pulses leave the chickpeas half-broken and pasty; a steady run is what actually turns them into a smooth puree.

What you need and the basic ratio

One 15-ounce can of chickpeas, drained but with the liquid reserved; 1/4 cup tahini; 2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; 1-2 garlic cloves; 2-3 tablespoons olive oil; 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin; salt to taste; and 2-4 tablespoons ice water or reserved chickpea liquid to loosen the puree.

Tahini separates in the jar, so stir it well before measuring — a spoonful of just the thick paste from the bottom makes noticeably stiffer, less creamy hummus than a properly stirred spoonful.

Step-by-step: the whipped-tahini method

1. Add the tahini, lemon juice, and garlic to the food processor bowl and run continuously for about a minute, until the mixture lightens in color and looks fluffy rather than thick and separated. This step alone is most of what separates creamy hummus from grainy hummus — whipping the tahini first coats every chickpea in a smooth paste instead of leaving raw chickpea bits to grind against each other.

2. Add the drained chickpeas, olive oil, cumin, and a pinch of salt. Run the processor continuously for 1-2 minutes, scraping down the sides once partway through. 3. With the processor running, drizzle in ice water a tablespoon at a time until the hummus is smooth and falls off a spoon rather than standing stiffly on it — most batches need 2-4 tablespoons total. 4. Taste and adjust salt and lemon juice, then run for another 30 seconds to fully incorporate.

Should you peel the chickpeas?

Chickpea skins don't blend down as fully as the inside of the bean, and a large batch of skins is the most common reason hummus still feels slightly grainy even after a full two minutes of processing. Rubbing canned chickpeas in a towel or between your palms under running water loosens most of the skins, which float and can be skimmed off.

It's a real difference for restaurant-smooth hummus, but it's also optional — plenty of good home hummus skips this step entirely and just relies on a longer processing time and enough ice water instead.

Troubleshooting grainy or stiff hummus

Still grainy after processing: it usually needs more liquid, not more processing time. Add ice water a tablespoon at a time with the machine running rather than continuing to process a dry batch, which just pushes air in without breaking anything down further.

Stiff or paste-like instead of creamy: this is almost always too little liquid relative to tahini and chickpeas — the fix is the same ice-water drizzle, since tahini thickens a lot right before it fully emulsifies with the other ingredients.

Bitter or overly garlicky: raw garlic gets sharper the longer it sits in an acidic mixture, so if you're making hummus ahead, consider starting with one clove and adding the second the next time only if needed.