Hummus with Garlic, Tahini, Lemon, and Spices is quick and easy to make. Great as a healthy snack or light meal, and seasoning can be adjusted.
Hummus is pretty much the perfect snack. Not only does it taste great, but it's healthy and super easy to make! Plus, if you serve it with whole wheat pita and vegetables, it can do double duty as a light meal.
If you've never made hummus before, now's the time to try. The ingredients used to make it include chickpeas (canned for convenience), olive oil, tahini (a Middle Eastern Sesame paste, which can be found in the International aisle of your grocery store or in a Middle Eastern grocery store), lemon juice, garlic, spices and some water to thin it out.
The spices in this hummus can even be adjusted to your taste. If you like spicy, make it spicy. If you eat it at work and don't want garlic breath for the rest of the day, use less garlic.
Even though it's extremely easy to make hummus, it is possible to mess it up. In the past, I have added too much salt on more than one occasion. If this happens, the only thing you can really do to save it is to add extra of all the other ingredients to "dilute" the excess salt you added, and you might as well just make it a double recipe.
How to Make Hummus with Garlic, Tahini, Lemon, and Spices:
The ingredients get pureed in a food processor or with an immersion blender, which is what I use (great tool by the way, I use mine almost daily). At this point, you can either eat it right away if you're short on time, or stick it in the fridge for half an hour for the flavors to meld, which makes it taste better.
This is one of those recipes that's great to use when you find out that you have people coming over tonight. You can whip it up right before they come, and by the time everyone's ready for a snack, it's done melding.
What you serve with it with is totally up to you. Fresh pita is a great choice, but I prefer raw vegetables. Crackers or pita chips is another option.
Hummus with Garlic, Tahini, Lemon, and Spices Ingredients:
- Canned chickpeas: you can use regular, or reduced salt if you prefer. Don't forget to save the aquafaba for another recipe!
- Olive oil
- tahini: Tahini is sesame paste. You can find it in most well-stocked grocery stores, usually in the natural foods or International aisle.
- Lemon juice: fresh lemon juice is best, but bottled works fine too.
- Garlic
- Salt: this is a great recipe to try MSG-salt
- Cinnamon
- Cumin
- Cayenne - this amount of cayenne doesn't really make the hummus too spicy, but feel free to skip it if you want.
- smoked paprika: This adds a slightly smoky flavor, but skip it if you want, or if you don't have any on hand.
- Water: Use whatever water you drink. Tap water is fine.
Want more dip recipes?
Hummus with Garlic, Tahini, Lemon, and Spices Nutrition Notes:
While I would consider hummus to be a healthy snack, it is not low in calories. This is mainly due to the addition of olive oil and tahini, which are both high in fat, although the good, heart-healthy kind of fat.
The nutrition information in the recipe below does not include anything that you might eat with the hummus, like pita, crackers, or vegetables.
This recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan as written.
Hummus
Ingredients
- 15 ounce can chickpeas
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup tahini
- 3 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 medium clove garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne
- ⅛ teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)
- ¼ cup water see note
Instructions
- Pour the 15 ounce can chickpeas into a mesh strainer or colander to drain (save the aquafaba in a bowl for another use if desired). Transfer the chickpeas to a medium, microwave-safe bowl. Heat the chickpeas in the microwave until steaming, about 1 minute on high.
- Puree the chickpeas, ¼ cup olive oil, ¼ cup tahini, 3 Tablespoon lemon juice, 1 medium clove garlic ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon cumin, ⅛ teaspoon cayenne, and ⅛ teaspoon smoked paprika using a food processor or immersion blender. Add water, 1 Tablespoon at a time until you acheive your desired texture. The hummus can be eaten right away, but it is best to cover it and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Try serving this hummus with your own homemade pita bread.
Lois
How long will it keep in the fridge?
Carissa
I wouldn't think any of the ingredients are highly perishable, but I would say 5 days max to be on the safe side.
Nat
Do you know if it's more cost effective to make hummus vs. buy? I always end up buying it out of convenience.
Carissa
This crossed my mind while I was writing the post. I didn't actually do a cost analysis, but I would definitely say it's cheaper to make - a can of chickpeas generally costs well under a dollar and it makes up the bulk of the recipe. The only expensive ingredient is the tahini (I think I paid $6-7 for mine) but it lasts for many recipes. I'm not sure exactly how much it costs to buy hummus, I'm thinking $4-5.