I remember a good couple of decades back when I first tried to eat hummus. I couldn’t!
I’m not quite sure how, who and what made me try it again. I tried and I’m glad I did as I can eat buckets of it now ??
Houmous is originally a Mediterranean dip which is written in few ways, houmous, hummus, humous or humus. What a gorgeous dip to have with some nice homemade flat bread or with crudities or eat in a pita bread with beautifully homemade falafel. Whichever way you choose to have it it’s absolutely gorgeous and very good for you -good and rich in proteins.
You could have a skinny version of it by replacing the olive oil with a low fat yoghurt like a Greek style one which is still creamy and the one that I’m thinking of right now it’s Total yoghurt the 2% fat. Perfect!
I do flavour it to sometimes with various other ingredients such as smoked Paprika, roast peppers, Fennel (fresh or roasted), or roasted parsnip, sweet potato or butternut squash. Just a tiny bit added to the blender when pulsing the chickpeas. Incredibly tasty… what can I say? Get courageous and add your favourite flavours. It’s not pretentious at all.
My advice is to make as much as you know you will be consuming within two-three days as it is not suitable for freezing and there’s nothing like a freshly home made houmous.
It is super quick and easy to prepare as you will see shortly. You can make it really smooth or you can leave it with more texture but this is totally up to how you’d like it.
In this particular recipe I’ve used canned chickpeas but most of the time I cook dry ones and when I boil them I just add an onion, a carrot or some leek, it all depends on my day and my mood but bottom line is that my houmous never ever comes out exactly the same as there are always exciting ingredients and flavours to try. I also have used caramelized onion, roast or fresh garlic or garlic infused mushrooms. You can throw in a blender what ever your fantasy dictates you at the time ?
Most of the time I’m using roast peppers but I have used fresh peppers too, so if you don’t mind the little bits of skin, go for it- try fresh peppers. I just love it! The only thing I would say is that when preparing it with fresh peppers, it has to be consumed pretty much in a day or two max as it will ferment and go all fizzy fairly quickly.
And here it is how we make this yummy hummus at home so that you will never have to buy it again.
You only need handful of ingredients.
Let’s get blending! ? ??
Ingredients
- 400 g chickpeas (cooked, in brine)
- 1 tbsp tahini (sesame paste)
- 1/2 lemon (juice)
- 1-2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp olive oil ( keep 1 tsp to drizzle over)
- 1/3 tsp cumin powder
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch black pepper (freshly ground)
- 1 tbsp caramelized onion to garnish
Instructions
- In a food processor bowl place the drained chickpeas (keep 3-4 tbsp of the brine) followed by the tahini paste, the lemon juice and the garlic and give it a good few pulses for around 30 seconds or so.
- And the olive oil cumin powder cayenne pepper, salt and pepper and process for a further 30 seconds. You may need to scrape the bowl sides once.
- Depending on the texture of the hummus add 2-4 tbsp of the chickpeas brine that you have kept aside.
- Taste for salt and pepper, give it a last whizz and spoon out in a serving bowl or plate.
- You can drizzle a little olive oil and some chopped fresh peppers or fresh parsley to garnish. I have used some caramelised onion. Serve and enjoy!
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