Ever had a strong craving for hummus but were too snobbish to spoon up some of the ready-made stuff from the supermarket?

First of all, we don’t blame you. Second, we’re happy to inform you that fresh hummus could soon be available at office kitchens near you… that is, if you work in Israel.

Humix, an instant hummus-making machine, is to be marketed across Israel in coming months by food giant Strauss Group – which also serves up very popular ready-made hummus brands.

Humix is designed to create a restaurant-level spread by combining cooked, ground and seasoned chickpea mash with raw tahini paste at the push of a button, eliminating the need for preservatives or heavy machinery. It even lets particularly particular hummus aficionados select their golden chickpea-to-tahini ratio for each serving.

According to the company, the machine is aimed at cafés, restaurants, hotels and office canteens that wish to serve hummus without the faff of actually making it.

Humix is also unique in that apparently it can blend the two required ingredients in a perfect manner using a biodegradable mixing element that requires replacing every day or two. This eliminates the need to clean the machine – no mean feat, as those of you who ever tried cleaning an old crusty pot of hummus surely recall.

“As experts on hummus with a passion for innovation, we decided to invest in answering the need for fresh, preservative-free hummus while solving significant challenges in terms of quality and safety in manufacturing outside of a food plant,” explains Dagan Eshel, VP Innovation at Strauss Group.

“Plant-based food in general, and hummus in particular, are a good nutritional alternative in replacing animal protein, which is a growing trend. At the same time, we’re also seeing a growing demand for ready-made food with minimal processing, minimal ingredients and with an emphasis on familiar ingredients. The hummus that we’re offering is made only of cooked, seasoned chickpea paste and tahini,” Eshel says.

“This enables us to produce a product that is as similar as possible in terms of flavor and texture to fresh, homemade hummus, without all the work involved in making it at home.”

For those of us who won’t have access to such a machine, however, here is an easy-peasy recipe for homemade hummus.  Just get someone else to do the dishes.

Naama Barak is a writer at ISRAEL21c. A PhD student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she loves all things history and politics. Food and fashion come a close second. Prior to joining ISRAEL21c, Naama worked for Israel's leading English-language dailies and cutting-edge startups.