This creamy Hummus dip is a really nutritious & tasty source of fiber, protein & calcium. It’s also a great and versatile staple addition to any meal or even a meal in itself. The supermarket versions, whilst not bad, are nothing like as tasty as really good home-made fresh hummus. This is because they’re trying to make it as cheaply as possible. They will use commercially produced sunflower or olive oil as opposed to good quality cold pressed oils. Equally they certainly won’t be using organic high quality tahini.
It can be difficult to make great tasting hummus though if you don’t know the simple secret of making it. If you have the right kit then it only takes 15 minutes to prepare. The main thing is a good food processor to make super rich, creamy, nutritious hummus. However many people who don’t know the simple techniques to getting it right turn out stodgy, grainy unappetizing versions. So they give up on it and just buy the supermarket versions.
Try this recipe, and I guarantee, you’ll never look back. The result is a super rich, super tasty hummus like you’ve never tasted before. It goes so well with my easy garlic bread too.
This creamy hummus dip should really class as a super-food. It’s a complete protein food too, and because of the tahini it is rich in calcium. Chick-peas are very close to soya beans in terms of their amino acid profile. Because of this, they are classed as a complete protein on the WHO website. Chickpeas in fact are a perfect complete protein for adults. This is because adults only need 8 essential amino acids, whereas children need 9. So although the one that is essential for children is a bit low it is still there, and is available in other foods in any case.
Make sure to use this tasty nutritious source of fiber & calcium often! Give it a go, and make sure you keep some in the fridge at all times! I’ve also added in a recipe for red pepper hummus – you can make one of each!
Creamy Hummus
Ingredients
- 140 ml lemon juice 2 to 3 large lemons – make up to 180ml with water – it mixes better.
- 140 g of light tahini. unfortunately, dark tahini doesn't work in this.
- 70 g of cold pressed olive oil Optional is to substitute 25g of olive oil with cold pressed avocado oil.
- 8 cloves of garlic (good sized) should be around 30g
- 12 g of sea salt - less if you prefer? I like to use smoked sea salt to add a bit of interest.
- ½ rounded teaspoon ground cumin I’ve not been using this lately – but it's a nice addition.
- 2 by 245g lots of cooked chickpeas. if you’re cooking them and freezing them or just 2 cans worth.
- 40-50 ml of cold water – or 2 ice cubes adjust during final blending so it’s not too thick but not too runny – add slowly – so you don’t overdo it!
Instructions
- The order is important – it doesn’t turn out well if you do it in the wrong order.
- Weigh 140g of tahini directly into the food processor bowl – less mess that way.
- Squeeze the lemon juice until you have the 140ml – and pour into the processor bowl
- Blend the lemon juice and tahini for 60 secs (can do longer it’s not critical just needs to be well mixed).
- Add in crushed garlic, sea-salt, olive oil and cumin if using.
- Blend for another 60 seconds scrape and blend for a further 60 seconds (or until very smooth). Again – can be longer.
- Add both lots of chick-peas, and blend for 5 minutes – if you use frozen chick peas, there's generally no need to scrape the sides etc as the frozen chickpeas do it. Check to see how well it's blended.
- I love it extra smooth so I do it for even longer. However you don’t want it to get warm as this will alter the flavour. A trick here is to use the frozen chick-peas – so that the hummus doesn’t warm up in the blender! Use ear defenders though as it’s very noisy! Using ice cubes for the extra water content helps too.
- Towards the end, you can dribble in some chick-pea juice if you have it or just water until you get that creamy (but not runny) consistency. Bear in mind it will thicken up in the fridge if not used immediately, so to maintain the nice creamy texture you will need to mix in extra water/ice cubes
Red Pepper Hummus
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
- ½ measure of standard hummus
- 100 g roasted red pepper
- 1 flat teasp paprika
- ½ teasp chilli paste
- ¼ teasp ginger paste
Instructions
- Make one lot of hummus as in the main recipe
- divide in half and put the plain hummus in a bowl and set aside
- either leave the half of the hummus in the food processor (easiest) or set it aside, and return to the bowl later
- weigh out 100g of roasted red pepper and drain to avoid the hummus becoming too wet.
- either way, once the hummus is back in the blender - add the drained red pepper
- Add the chilli paste, the ginger, and the paprika
- blending the red pepper in the food processor
- it will be more sloppy than regular hummus, but will firm up in the fridge
- be careful when transferring as it will be more difficult to get into the bowl
