How To Make the Best Instant Pot Hummus

Let’s talk about hummus really quick — the best ones are silky-smooth with a creamy garlic flavor and the smoky hint of tahini. It’s nice to find this in a grocery store hummus or in one made from canned beans, but this Instant Pot version makes hummus that hits all those high notes with very little hands-on work (no peeling off chickpea skins!) and yet it still turns out ethereally smooth.

The secret? Giving chickpeas a long overnight soak in a briny bath to soften the skins and then cooking the beans until they’re incredibly tender in under an hour in the electric pressure cooker. The rest of the hummus comes together in minutes with just four other ingredients. This really is the best hummus you can make from dried beans using the Instant Pot.

We believe there are two types of hummus you can make at home: an easy everyday version using canned beans that delivers a ton of flavor as quickly as possible and a super-lush version from dried beans that is so incredibly smooth and delicate in flavor that you’ll break it out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This instant pot hummus is the second type, for sure.

Starting with dried chickpeas has more advantages beyond them being an even cheaper option than canned. With dried chickpeas we have the opportunity to cook the beans specifically to the point that leads to the perfect hummus texture. On top of that we can also season the beans twice — once while they’re soaking and again while they cook. By simply starting with dried chickpeas you end up with a hummus that has a richer, more robust flavor and a smooth and dreamy consistency.

When you open a can of chickpeas for making hummus, you get chickpeas that are firm enough to be shipped and stored before cooking in soups or being roasted. But when you cook your own chickpeas for hummus, you can make sure they are soft and supple (the skins included) to make for easier blending into a super-smooth hummus.

In this recipe we’re doing a few things that go against conventional wisdom for cooking chickpeas. These efforts are almost hands-off, but really do make a very big difference.

• Soak chickpeas in salt water: The first is soaking the chickpeas in salty water overnight. Most bean recipes recommend adding salt after cooking to prevent the salt from softening the skins of the beans while cooking. But for creamy hummus, softening the skins of the chickpeas (instead of painstakingly removing them) makes the resulting hummus much smoother.
• Cook chickpeas even longer: This was a hummus revelation! If you want creamy hummus, use soft chickpeas. We’re going to cook the chickpeas much longer than we would for everyday eating — a totally of 55 minutes under pressure (25 minutes cooking, 30 minutes of natural release) versus 15 minutes for tender but sturdy beans from the electric pressure cooker.
• Blend and then whip the hummus. After you’ve drained the cooked chickpeas (save some of the liquid), you’ll blend them with tahini, lemon juice, and more salt until pasty in a food processor. Then continue to process the hummus, adding the reserved liquid, until the hummus is ultra smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

You can serve this hummus straight out of the food processor while it is still warm, but I prefer moving it to a serving bowl and drizzling with olive oil and a sprinkle of spices (za’atar, sumac, or cumin are classic, but everything bagel spice is as fun as it is tasty). I find the flavor of this hummus improves after a day in the fridge, but it keeps well stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.