There are certain things that I never buy at the grocery store anymore – hummus is among them. Even though there are entire cases dedicated to every possible flavor of hummus, a simple Middle Eastern dish made with chick peas, I can’t bring myself to buy it anymore. Once upon a time it was a go-to party dish for our family. Hummus and corn chips were always right beside the chips and dip. It’s a match made in heaven, for sure.
These days I can’t get past the nasty seed oils and preservatives commercial brands throw into their mixtures. I mean, seriously, it’s such an easy dish to prepare, everyone should be making this in their home kitchens and flavoring it the way they want!
My first experience making my own hummus was while I was working on a cookbook job a few years ago. It was a recipe that I had to prepare as a food stylist and I couldn’t believe how simple it was.
food processor = homemade hummus.
Yes, you could start with soaking dried beans but I start with organic, canned garbanzo beans, also called chick peas. Then, because I LOVE, and I mean LOVE, lemon, I use it liberally in my recipe.
The beauty of homemade is that you can flavor it as strongly or as mildly as you like. Don’t love garlic? Use some sweet onion. Don’t love lemon, add a little white wine vinegar. It’s very forgiving and a great medium to play with.
While I still love hummus with corn chips, I typically eat it with veggies these days. Low carb life and all. You can serve hummus on burgers, sandwiches, on pizza, as a salad dressing ingredient and much more! And, it takes only about five minutes to make!
You might also like these dips:
Hellova Better Chip Dip
Alfredo Dipping Sauce
Farmer’s Ranch Dressing
- 2 cans of garbanzo beans, drained
- 5-7 cloves of garlic
- ¾ cup lemon juice
- ½ cup Tahini
- 1 tsp salt
- pepper to taste
- Olive oil or Avocado oil to desired smoothness (about ¼ cup) plus extra olive oil for drizzling.
- In a food processor, combine beans, garlic, lemon juice, salt and Tahini.
- Blend until well combined. It will be thick.
- With the food processor running, drizzle in the olive oil until the mixture becomes smooth and creamy.
- Serve with desired toppings.
- Store in refrigerator up to 6 days.