Balila
A Lebanese breakfast from the cafés that serve ful and hummus, and essentially hummus before it is blended. The chickpeas are served warm and whole, with the same seasoning: garlic, cumin, lemon and olive oil. The whole quality rests on one thing — the chickpeas must be soft enough to crush between your fingers with no resistance. Firmish chickpeas make a completely different, far lesser dish.
Your own work in that: 5 min.
- Soaking 720 min
- Cooking 60 min
- Dressing 5 min
- Serving 5 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneSoak the chickpeas with soda overnight
Cover the chickpeas with cold water and a teaspoon of bicarbonate for 12 hours. The soda raises the pH and softens the skins — the simplest way to reach the softness needed here noticeably faster.
Ingredients: 300 g chickpeas · 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda · 2000 ml water · 1 pcs bay leaf · 1 tsp salt
Soda in the water — they soften faster.Rinse and cook until fully soft
Rinse the chickpeas, cover with fresh water, add the bay leaf and a teaspoon of salt and simmer with the lid ajar for about 60 minutes. Contrary to popular belief, salt in the water does not toughen chickpeas — it simply seasons them right through.
Ingredients: 300 g chickpeas · 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda · 2000 ml water · 1 pcs bay leaf · 1 tsp salt
Skim off the floating skins
While they cook, skim the skins that float to the surface with a slotted spoon. There is no need to peel every chickpea — most come off by themselves, and those that remain are soft enough not to matter.
Ingredients: 300 g chickpeas · 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda · 2000 ml water · 1 pcs bay leaf · 1 tsp salt
The skins come off by themselves — skim them off.Test with your fingers, not the clock
The chickpeas are ready when a grain crushes between your fingers with no resistance at all. If it resists, cook on in 10 minute stages. Texture is everything here — the only test that matters.
Ingredients: 300 g chickpeas · 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda · 2000 ml water · 1 pcs bay leaf · 1 tsp salt
Mix the garlic and lemon dressing
Crush the garlic with salt to a paste, add the lemon juice, cumin and oil and whisk. The dressing should taste distinctly sour and strongly garlicky — it spreads across all the chickpeas and mellows noticeably once mixed.
Ingredients: 3 cloves garlic · 2 pcs lemons · 1½ tsp cumin · 80 ml olive oil · 1 tsp salt
Strongly sour and garlicky — it will spread across everything.Toss with the warm chickpeas
Drain the chickpeas, keeping a few spoonfuls of the cooking water, and toss with the dressing while still warm; if the dish seems dry, add a little of the reserved water. Warm chickpeas absorb the dressing; cooled ones are merely coated and the dish falls flat.
Ingredients: 3 cloves garlic · 2 pcs lemons · 1½ tsp cumin · 80 ml olive oil · 1 tsp salt
Serve warm with pita
Scatter with parsley and chilli, add a last drizzle of oil and serve warm, with warm pita. If using tomatoes, cut them into quarters and serve alongside. Balila is eaten with a spoon or scooped up with bread.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp parsley · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 4 pcs pita · 2 pcs tomatoes
Before you start
Tinned chickpeas
They work, but need correcting: rinse them and simmer 15 minutes in fresh water so they soften and lose the tinned flavour. Without that step balila is clearly inferior to the dried-bean version.
The tahini version
A popular variant adds a spoonful of tahini to the dressing, giving a thicker dish closer to hummus. A variant rather than a departure — try both and decide which you prefer.
Three days in the fridge
In a sealed container balila keeps three days but suffers from the cold — the oil sets and the cumin fades. Reheat with a little water and re-season with lemon: the fresh lemon note fades fastest, and it matters most here.
