Name: Hot Humus Heaven
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Turkey
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon pul biber, Aleppo pepper, or finely chopped dried chillies; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons tahini; 2–3 tablespoons pine nuts; 6 tablespoons thick, creamy yogurt; juice of 2 lemons; 2 teaspoons cumin seeds; roughly 4 tablespoons olive oil; 2–3 cloves garlic, crushed; 2 x 400 g tins of chickpeas, drained and thoroughly rinsed

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Spirit & Spice

By Ghillie Basan

Published 2019

About

I first had this dish in 1985 in a tiny village near Kars in the east of Turkey. I remember every moment of that day and I have been writing about this delicious discovery ever since. I was travelling with a Turkish colleague who could speak Kurdish as we were reporting in a region hit by rebel PKK groups in the dark of night. Our day had been tense as we had driven by burnt out vehicles, peppered with bullet holes, including two German-plated Volkswagen vans, and we were aware that we were