Hummus is a healthy vegetarian, snack food that both kids and adults enjoy! Hummus is an Egyptian food dip that consists of mashed chickpeas and blended with tahini, lemon juice and olive oil. This is something that is commonly served at parties, as a restaurant appetizer or even sold in small plastic tubs at the supermarket. Hummus dip is very quick and easy to make. It requires no actually cooking, but rather combining ingredients into a blender.
There are many different varieties of hummus that you can make. This recipe is my “original” style hummus. In the weeks to come I will share many other variations.
- 1 can Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- 1 tbsp Tahini
- 1- 2 cloves Garlic (grated or chopped)
- 2- 3 tbsp Lemon Juice
- ½ cup Water
- 1 - 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- Salt (to taste)
- 1 tsp Roasted Sesame Seeds (optional)
- Red Chili Powder (to taste) (optional)
- Paprika & Oiive Oil garnish (optional)
- **All measurements are approximate. You must taste the hummus as you blend and adjust accordingly.
- Open the can of garbanzo beans. Set aside the water from the can to use for later.
- Add the garbanzo beans, ¼ cup of the reserved water, lemon juice and olive oil to the blender and start blending.
- Add the tahini, garlic & salt to the blender
- Add the roasted sesame seeds (optional)
- Add red chili powder (optional for adults)
- Keep adding more of the reserved water to the blender until you get a smooth texture. Scrape the sides with a spatula as needed.
- Taste the hummus to make sure all the ingredients are to your liking. Otherwise, add in more salt and lemon.
- Remove the hummus from the blender.
- Garnish the hummus with paprika and olive oil (optional)
- Serve with pita bread, veggies or chips
- Enjoy!
Super Note: Cooking hummus is very easy. The only thing you need to keep in mind is to taste and adjust the ingredients as you go along. It is better to add a little at first, then continue adding more ingredients to the blender until you get the taste and consistency that you desire. I have been making this recipe for years and I still taste as I go along. 🙂
Quick & Easy Hummus Tips/Facts:
1. What are chickpeas? Chickpeas are referred to as many different things: chickpeas, garbanzo beans, channa, chola. You can buy it either in a can (already cooked) or as a seed.
2. Using fresh chickpeas: I often make hummus using fresh chickpeas (non-sprouted seeds). This gives the hummus a more earthy flavor and is much more cost effective. If you are using fresh chickpeas, you first need to soak the chickpeas overnight so that they sprout. Then boil the chickpeas (I usually use my pressure cooker) until they are fully cooked. Do not undercook the chickpeas, otherwise your hummus will not turn out well.
3. Roasting sesame seeds: Adding extra roasted sesame seeds to the hummus a much richer texture and flavor. This is based on preference and not necessary to have awesome tasting hummus. In order to roast your sesame seeds, just add olive oil and sesame seeds to a frying pan and roast until the sesame seeds are a light brown color. Just in case you didn’t already know, the base ingredients of ‘tahini’ is sesame seeds.
4. Other types of Hummus: Once you become an expert at the original hummus recipe, you are ready to start experimenting. You can add all types of ingredients to your hummus dip. For starters, I always add a bit of red chili powder to my original hummus recipe when making this for adults. This gives it a slight kick. You can also try making ‘roasted red pepper’ hummus (great for parties), ‘coriander hummus’ great to eat with chicken dishes, ‘spinach’ hummus (super healthy) or roasted garlic hummus. The possibilities are endless.
4. Where to buy tahini in Singapore: There are many different places that you can buy tahini in Singapore. Mustafa sells a whole jar of tahini for cheap. All of the organic stores also carry it. Occasionally you can find tahini at Cold Storage, Marketplace or some of the higher priced grocery stores. You can probably also buy tahini at some Arab or Mediterranean food suppliers (I would call ahead and check). If you still can’t find tahini, try iHerb.com (my new favorite online food store) – they definitely sell it. They ship your entire purchase to Singapore for only $4 and offer numerous discounts on their healthy food items. FYI – iHerb is much cheaper than most of the organic stores in SG.
-xoxo-
SuperMommy
