When I was 15, I spent a summer in Israel where I learned to make hummus. I've been making that same recipe frequently for almost 30 years and it's a good one. I've gotten a lot of compliments. It was certainly preferable to store bought hummus, but it never lived up to restaurant hummus. The garlic was too pronounced, and the tehini under-represented.

I recently discovered a new way of making hummus, and it's so much better that I had to share it. This recipe, taken from Michael Solomonov's Zahav cook book, is divine. I recently made a batch to share with my sister and brother-in-law when they were in town and between four of us, we ate the entire bowl in one sitting (and then we went out to dinner). The secret is to start by making tahini sauce. I'll confess, I use canned chick peas for this, and I also reduce the proportions (see notes following the recipe), as I prefer to make it more often and enjoy it at its peak freshness. Here's the receipe as listed in the New York Times:

Ingredients

1 cup dried chickpeas
2 teaspoons baking soda
Juice of 1 1/2 large lemons (about 1/3 cup), more to taste
2 to 4 cloves garlic, grated
1 ¾ teaspoons kosher salt, more to taste
1 cup tahini sauce (see recipe in step 5 below)
½ teaspoon ground cumin, more to taste
Paprika, olive oil and fresh parsley for serving

Instructions

In a bowl, cover chickpeas by at least 2 inches of cold water. Add 1 teaspoon baking soda and let soak at room temperature overnight. Drain and rinse.
In a medium pot, cover soaked chickpeas by at least 4 inches of water.
Add the remaining teaspoon baking soda and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce heat to medium high and let cook at a vigorous simmer until chickpeas are quite soft, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. (Overcooked chickpeas are the secret to creamy hummus, so don’t worry if they start to break down a little.) Drain.
While chickpeas are cooking, make the tahini sauce. In a blender, combine the lemon juice, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Let mixture sit 10 minutes. Add tahini, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and the cumin, and blend until a thick paste forms. Add 1/3 to 2/3 cup ice water while blender is running, a little at a time, until sauce is smooth. You’re looking for a perfectly smooth, creamy sauce.
Add the warm, drained chickpeas to blender with tahini mixture.
Blend until perfectly smooth and not at all grainy, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl occasionally. This blending may take upward of about 2 minutes; just keep going until the mixture is ultra creamy and fluffy, adding a little water if you need it to make the contents of the blender move. Taste for seasonings, adding more salt, lemon juice and/or cumin as needed.
To serve, spread the hummus on a plate, dust with paprika, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with parsley.

Notes:

One cup of dried chick peas yields about 3 cups of cooked chick peas. I usually halve this recipe because I like to make a fresh batch of hummus every other day or so. I do the same thing when making the tahini sauce, as the recipe in the cookbook makes a large portion. The tahini sauce recipe is already reduced to make a single portion in the recipe above, but here is how I reduce the hummus recipe:

One 15 ounce can chick peas (drained and rinsed)
1/2 cup tahini sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

I also drizzle a little bit of olive oil into the chute on the food processor while the hummus is processing, which helps to achieve the smooth consistency that I love so much. In my opinion, this is the perfect recipe for Valentine's or any other day because hummus is love.