First, drain the canned butter beans using a sieve over a bowl, making sure to save the liquid (aquafaba) in the cans.

Put the drained beans, 5 tablespoons of the aquafaba, and everything else except the garnishes into a blender of food processor. Whirl until things start to become uniform. If the mixture is very thick, add another tablespoon of aquafaba and go again. Your goal is a smooth, uniform mass that is easy to scoop up with pita wedges or crackers, but not oozy.

Adjust the salt to your taste. Yes, you may add more garlic if you are a garlic lover—for this recipe, we leaned on the lighter side.

The garnishes shown here are a little bit of sumac and a dash of olive oil. Paprika works beautifully too on this hummus—I am of the school of you can never go wrong with paprika. You may also chop some parsley for a dash of green—for this use, it is very gratifying to hack up the parsley until it is nearly dust.

Once you have this recipe under your belt, try varying the theme—toss in a few olives, or a bit of dill, or a little fresh or sun-dried tomato into the blender.

Serving: As a dip or snack, serve this with pita wedges, your favorite crackers, or crudités. Right now we are addicted to the crackers shown in our photo, Organic Seedy Crackers from Trader Joe’s, which are very very crisp and very very delicious.

Store in the fridge up to four days. Can you freeze it? Yes! Store in an airtight container for up to 10 weeks.