Here is the 2nd in the series of Things You May Never Need To Make Again. The increasingly popular – hummus
Hummus
Once you’ve made hummus at home, will you ever want the bought version again? For the smoothest version, you’ll need a food processor, stick blender or similar. Although if the chick peas are soft enough, you can mash them with a fork.
Drain a tin of chickpeas, or for an even cheaper version, soak and cook some dried ones until very soft. Tip the chickpeas into the food processor or jug, add about 125ml of olive oil and blitz. Add the zest and a squeeze of lemon juice and a good squirt of garlic paste or equivalent. If you have any, add several tablespoons of tahini or a little peanut butter, which tastes amazingly similar. I have successfully made this with just water and it didn’t taste that different, so you could do that if you want a low fat version, or use rapeseed oil, cheaper than oil.
Variations
That’s the classic version. You can do exactly the same using any kinds of beans. Change it up by adding caramelised onions, roasted veg, bottled roast peppers, any of the miso’s. Or use a higher proportion of veg. Use half the amount of chick peas and add a value pack of beetroot, maybe some horseradish or chutney. A favourite chutney of mine is Pataks Brinjal (aubergine). You could add a tbslp of that to an ordinary hummus to get a completely different flavour.
Another very different version in the archives is a carrot one, creamy with tahini. We also have a spicy, curried hummus, and a roasted veg hummus. I’ve made several other types, but not written them up.
All sorts of things can be added to ring the changes. Drain and rinse a tin of value baked beans and use those in place of the chickpeas for an extra cheap hummus.
All hummus freeze very well. So they could be frozen in small pots ready to be grabbed for a packed lunch, or make a sandwich, generously filled with hummus and wrap and freeze.
I found this wonderful infographic on Pinterest for hummus. It shows lots of different versions, and I will definitely be trying several of them. In particular the Ranch and the Italian.
Hummus made easy, multiple recipes. (X-post r/CookingForBeginners)
Ok Amanda, I think I’ve found a way to improve it. Hope it helps
The graphic here looks fascinating – but I’m afraid I can’t make out the words because it is so blurred. The rest of the page is lovely and clear. Is it at all possible you might reload it at a higher resolution so that we can read it? I’d really appreciate that. Thank you for considering it.
Love the sound of that pasta – I must try it 🙂
you’re so right, lesley; you do not need olive oil at all. the recipe i use – which i think will interest you for its simplicity – is this one from a syrian family (https://syrianfoodie.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-hundred-and-one-mezze-7-hummus.html). they chuck in half the can water as well as using veg oil. i completely agree that peanut butter makes a very fine substitute for tahini, at half the price by weight. it’s hard to find tahini under £1/100g. Natco do big bags of sesame seeds for 75p/100g if you want to burn out your food processor. miso hummus is delicious too, but i think my favourite variation is marmite hummus. is there anything that is not improved by marmite? No, there isn’t. incidentally gary rhodes did a recipe booklet years ago for marmite with a recipe for marmite pasta. I can no longer remember which was the original and which was the variation, but i make it with either just butter, marmite, parmesan and dried oregano or fresh thyme or with the marmite stirred into beaten eggs first for a rough carbonara. love your site. especially the breads. gotta try your innovative self-raising flour bread. Thanks for sharing and Keep up the good work!