RECIPE: Make Fia’s Wood-Fired Hummus
I enjoyed lunch with friends at Fia in the Burgess Hotel on Piedmont Road. We all raved over the Wood-Fired Hummus. It’s served warm and has charred sweet onions and toasted pine nuts. We’d love to be able to re-create this recipe in our home kitchens if the restaurant will share the recipe. Thanks very much. — Brenda Mazzocchi, Tucker
Executive chef Daniel Porubiansky helms the kitchen at Fia, a restaurant specializing in the rustic cooking of the western Mediterranean with many of its dishes prepared on a wood-fired grill. The garnish for the hummus consists of onions cooked whole in the coals of that wood-fired grill, then pulsed in a food processor and mixed with Dijon mustard and sherry vinegar. That’s spread over the warm hummus in an ovenproof dish and heated under a salamander until golden brown. One more step is to top everything with pine nuts tossed with olive oil, salt and tandoori seasoning, then baked until golden.
One of the things that makes the hummus a standout dish is the addition of so many savory ingredients in the cooking liquid. The recipe calls for urfa biber chile flakes, a Turkish chile with medium heat and a smoky flavor. You can find the spice online.
- 1 pound dried chickpeas
- 8 cups water, plus more for soaking chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon whole coriander seed
- 1 teaspoon whole cumin seed
- 3/4 cup diced onions
- 1/2 cup diced carrot
- 6 large garlic cloves
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon urfa biber chile flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup tahini
- Charred onion and pine nuts, for garnish (read story, above, for garnish instructions)
- In a large bowl, cover chickpeas with water and soak 8-12 hours. When ready to cook, drain and discard soaking liquid.
- In a small, dry skillet over medium-high heat, toast coriander and cumin seeds until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
- In a large stockpot, bring 8 cups water to a boil. Add soaked chickpeas, onions, carrots, garlic, chile flakes, salt and baking soda. Add toasted coriander and cumin seeds. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat slightly and cook until chickpeas are tender, about 2 hours. The time will vary according to how long you soaked the chickpeas and how old they were. Periodically skim off the foam that forms at the top and check to be sure the chickpeas stay covered with liquid as they’re cooking. Add more water, if necessary. When chickpeas are completely tender, drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid and discarding the remainder.
- In the jar of a blender, combine cooked mixture with olive oil and tahini. Blend until smooth. If you prefer a looser texture, add some of the reserved cooking liquid. Taste for seasoning and cool until ready to use. When ready to serve, warm the hummus. Garnish with charred onions and pine nuts, if desired. Makes: 5 cups.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per 1/4 cup: 140 calories (percent of calories from fat, 40), 5 grams protein, 16 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 6 grams total fat (1 gram saturated), no cholesterol, 186 milligrams sodium.From the menu of...Fia, 3600 Piedmont Road NE, Atlanta. 404-869-1100, fiaatlanta.com.
Is there a recipe from a metro Atlanta restaurant you’d like to make at home? Tell us and we’ll try to get it. We’ll also test it and adapt it for the home kitchen. Because of volume, we can’t answer all inquiries. Send your request, your address and phone number to fromthemenu@gmail.com and put “From the menu of” and the name of the restaurant in the subject line.
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