Hummus: Delicious Recipes For Chickpeas

Hummus is traditionally made from chickpeas and sesame paste and seasoned with cumin. Get to know the oriental specialty!

Hummus is mainly made from chickpeas, but beans can also be used with it. Other classic ingredients are sesame paste, olive oil, garlic, cumin and lemon. But there are many other recipe variations!

What is hummus?

Maybe you have n’t tried hummus yet, but you have already discovered it in small bowls on the refrigerated shelf. Hummus is an oriental specialty, which is a thick paste made from chickpeas or beans and other tasty ingredients.

Hummus is traditionally eaten as a dip with fresh flatbread; we also like to serve the paste with vegetable sticks. Hummus is very rich in protein and also low in fat, because the olive oil is only poured onto the surface for serving. If you omit it, you have a low-fat, high-protein paste that you can also use as a delicious spread.

Basic recipe for hummus

This recipe is traditionally a kind of basis for your own creations. You can make it easier for yourself if you buy chickpeas pre-cooked in jars or cans. So that your hummus is nice and fine, make sure that the chickpeas no longer have any outer skin. With skins, however, it is much healthier because of the fiber …

Our recipe is the “quick version” with canned chickpeas, but you can also use dried chickpeas. You can get tahini in the delicatessen department of larger supermarkets or in any health food store. You need:

• 1 large can of chickpeas (approx. 1 / 2kg)

• 3 tbsp tahini (sesame paste)
• 2 lemons
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp cumin (powder, finely ground)
• salt
• Strong olive oil, cold pressed

Pour off the liquid from the can and place the chickpeas in a tall mixing vessel in which you can puree well. Do not pour the liquid away from the can, but catch it! Squeeze the lemons and set the juice aside.

Now start to puree the chickpeas with tahini and garlic. Add about half of the lemon juice and taste so that you can taste the lemon but not get too sour. If the paste is too firm, add the liquid from the jar until the cream is easy to spread.

Then season generously with cumin and season with salt. Spread the paste into a soup plate and use a moistened spoon to make indentations on the surface. Carefully pour the olive oil over the hummus so that it collects in the hollows. Finished!

The longer you let the cream soak through, the more intense the wonderful aroma will be. That is the basic recipe. You can vary it and stir the following spices into the paste:

• Chili peppers (flaked for a nice look)
• pepper
• Parsley (also use plenty for decoration)
• Rose paprika (hot!)
• Sweet paprika (also nice decoration mixed with olive oil)
• Curry powder (dose carefully)

There are no limits to your imagination and experimentation! Hummus also goes well with warm vegetable dishes instead of sauce … Try other recipe variations:

Tomato hummus

This variant tastes sweeter and has a great color. Ideal as a colorful hummus variant in addition to the somewhat “colorless” basic recipe. Add a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil to the basic recipe. Drain the tomatoes well and squeeze them out a little before pureing so that the paste doesn’t get too oily. The dried tomatoes also go with a little more garlic than stated in the basic recipe.

Recipe variant with beans

If you can’t find chickpeas, the easiest alternative is a large can of white beans, which you can buy in any supermarket. Make sure that there are only white beans in the can and not soup greens with herbs, carrots and spices, which would adulterate the taste. The preparation does not change and the taste is quite similar.

Avocado variant

Another color variant for a colorful hummus platter is to modify the recipe with avodado. You need half a very ripe avocado, which you puree with the other ingredients. If the avocado is not ripe and aromatic enough, use a whole avocado. The avocado is in addition to the chickpeas and does not replace them – otherwise it would be almost guacamole …

Chocolate hummus

Sounds weird, but it’s delicious and brings another color into play. Warning: this variant is not sweet, but goes very well with autumnal fruit such as figs, pears or grapes – or on flatbread just like that. Complete the basic recipe with 30g cocoa powder, 30g ground almonds and add some liquid to maintain the creaminess.