Musabbaha

Musabbaha means swimming in Arabic, and that’s what you get here, chickpeas swimming in hummus, tahini, olive oil, yogurt and lemon juice. Humus has had all our attention for donkey’s years. It’s time to say hello to its chunky cousin “Musabbaha”. There are umpteen recipes of Musabbaha out there, but the garlicky kick and green chilly punch have my heart with this one. It’s a popular breakfast dip originating from the Levant area. Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, etc have various versions to it. It’s preferably served warm as compared to Hummus, but room temperature works fine too. The key hero that makes all the difference is the dagga. Dag means hammer in Arabic, and the action of crushing garlic and chillies  in a mortar pestle brings out the verb dagga. This deliciously chunky breakfast dip can be served alongside, warm pita bread, lavash, Bazlama( Turkish flat bread)or as a side for steaks. 

Let’s get started;

Make the Hummus:

1. Drain 2 tins of chickpeas. In a blender, add 2 cups of chickpeas( reserve the remaining chickpeas to assemble), 4 cloves garlic, 1-2 green chilies(optional), 2 tbsp tahini, 4 tbsp olive oil, juice of one lemon, salt to taste and a cup of water and blend to a smooth paste. 

Make the dagga:

1. In a mortar, roughly crush 4 garlic cloves and 3 chillies, now add a handful of chopped parsley and 3 tbsp of olive oil. Crush them further to a rough paste. (If you don’t have a mortar you can totally just toss all the ingredients in a small blender and blitz it 2-3 times.) Dagga is ready. 

2. In a mixing bowl add half the dagga, hummus, 4tbsp yogurt, 2tbsp tahini, 2-3 tbsp of lemon juice and salt to taste. Mix well.

Assemble

Transfer the hummus dagga mix, add the reserved chickpeas and stir(or make them swim). Top it up with the remaining dagga mix. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil. Garnish with roasted pine nuts and sprinkle some paprika powder.(optional)