How to Make Homemade Hummus

If you don’t know how to make homemade hummus, you’re missing out. Hummus is one of the easiest things you can make quickly, when you want a tasty dip.

The thing about hummus is that although it’s easy to make, it’s also easy for it to taste blah. With a little practice though, it’s also an easy art-form to create a hummus that zings your taste buds and makes you go crazy for if.

So what’s the trick? I think the thing to do is to learn how to made a basic homemade hummus and after that, experiment with how to tweak its flavour so that it really stands out. From there on, you can made different types of hummus like sweet potato hummus or roasted red pepper hummus for example.

The trick lies in perfecting the basic hummus recipe first.

How to Make Your Homemade Hummus Taste Yummy

Basic Recipe for Homemade Hummus

The main basic ingredients of hummus are chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt & pepper. You can also add a little ground cumin powder, some chilli powder and some soy sauce if necessary.

Method for Making Hummus

Put the chickpeas, tahini, chopped garlic, pinch of cumin and generous squeeze of lemon juice into a blender. Add a pinch of salt and a good dash of olive oil. Blend to a smooth paste. Now taste the mix and see if it’s how you like it. The most likely answer is that it will taste a bit blah. So now it’s time to do the finishing touches.

Steps to Perfect Your Hummus Flavour

• Address the most obvious things, like adding more salt, lemon juice or olive oil.

• Next choose whether to add some more cumin, extra chilli or soy sauce.

• Finally, when you think your hummus is tasting ok, transfer it to a container and pour a really tasty virgin olive oil on top. Squeeze half a lemon on top and a good grinding of black pepper.

• Put the hummus in the fridge to cool. When you remove it from the fridge to eat, the topping of the olive oil and lemon juice and black pepper will make the taste zing.

• Tip: sometimes less is more. Adding too many chickpeas can actually spoil the overall balance of the hummus. If this is the case, try diluting it a touch with a little water.

Optional Variations for Homemade Hummus

Instead of blending all the chickpeas, blend most of them and save a small quantity aside. Mash these up with a fork so that they’re only partially mashed and add them to the smoothly blended hummus for a more chunky variation.

Or, for the opposite effect, remove the husk of the chickpeas for a smoother finish on the hummus.

For another variation, add other flavourings by adding the extra ingredient to replace some of the chickpeas in the hummus:

• tomato hummus
• avocado hummus
• beetroot hummus
• roasted red pepper hummus
• carrot hummus
• sweet potato hummus
• white bean hummus

How to Serve Hummus

Chill the hummus in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. Then sprinkle sweet paprika or chilli powder on top to give it an attractive presentation and a little twist to the flavour.

Drizzle on some extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Hummus is delicious in so many ways. It can be added to sandwiches, spread in wraps, dolloped into buddha bowls, eaten alongside vegetables or potatoes, and take pride of place in a Mezze platter.

You can also use hummus as a dip served with sliced raw vegetables and homemade vegan pesto. If you can get hold of any gluten free pitta bread, it also goes perfectly with hummus.

When you invite some friends over and you want some finger foods, you can make some delicious vegan balls and serve alongside a bowl of crudités with hummus dip.

Delicious on the side of gluten free pasta salad, this high protein king salad, or a summer vegetable grilled salad.