The Hummus My Grandfather Taught Us to Make

There is a moment when you taste hummus made the right way and you just know. You cannot always explain it. You just know.

My grandfather knew. He spent years learning his craft in Yafa, Palestine as a teenager — studying the ingredients, understanding the process, developing the patience that real cooking requires. By the time he opened his restaurant in Jordan in 1951, he had it down. And for over fifty years, he made it the same way every single time.

That is the recipe we use today.

People ask us all the time what makes our hummus different. The honest answer is that we never changed anything. We did not modernize it or streamline it or find a faster way to do it. We make it the old fashioned way because the old fashioned way is the right way. The process matters. The ingredients matter. The time you put into it matters.

We use whole ingredients. Nothing processed, nothing artificial, nothing that does not belong. Chickpeas, tahini, lemon, garlic — the basics done with intention and care. The kind of care my grandfather had when he was teaching himself to cook as a young man in Palestine.

Afeef and I grew up eating this hummus at my grandfather's restaurant in Jordan. It was just food to us back then — the normal thing on the table that we never thought twice about. It was not until we moved to America and started missing home that we understood what we had. That warmth. That flavor. That feeling of sitting around a table with people you love and eating something made with real hands and real ingredients.

When we opened Yafa Hummus in Tracy, we made a decision early on. We were not going to cut corners. We were not going to compromise on ingredients to save money or speed up the process to serve more people faster. If my grandfather's recipe was worth keeping for over seventy years, it was worth keeping here too.

"He came to visit us in Tracy in 2019. Sat down, tasted the hummus, looked at us and nodded. That nod meant more to us than any award or review ever could."

He came to visit us in Tracy in 2019. Sat down, tasted the hummus, looked at us and nodded. That nod meant more to us than any award or review ever could.

We make our hummus every day the same way he taught us. Fresh, from scratch, with patience. That is the only way we know how.

— Mohammad