Make-It-Yourself Hummus

Just in time for the weekend, here’s an easy recipe for homemade hummus. Making this addictive dip at home allows you lots of room for getting creative with the flavors or keeping it traditional. Using either canned chickpeas makes this dead simple and very quick to put together. Use a blender if you want a super smooth texture like you get from store-bought versions. You’re less than 10 minutes away from a spatula-licking good bowl of hummus if you’ve got a can of chickpeas, a few seasonings and a blender.

Hummus is great fresh out of the blender, but even better if you can let it sit for half an hour or longer to let the flavors come together, especially the garlic. Go with two cloves if your cloves are big or you’re not a huge fan of strong garlic hummus. You can go with more if your cloves are the small inner ones, but start with the recommended amount first and taste partway through blending to be sure you need more–you can always add, but never subtract if you’ve added too much. If you’re using roasted garlic, think in terms of at least three times as much garlic since roasting mellows the flavor considerably.

Make-it-Yourself Hummus

1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed OR 1 2/3 cup cooked chickpeas
2-3 cloves garlic
3 Tablespoons tahini
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon coarse salt, less if fine table salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup water
Optional extras: roasted garlic, roasted red pepper, olives, curry powder, roasted jalapenos, scallions, cilantro, parsley, etc.

Place all ingredients except water and oil into a blender or food processor and pulse until you have a chunky paste, scraping down sides as needed. Bump up blender speed and stream in the water and olive oil, blending on medium to high speed until a very smooth texture is achieved, scraping down a time or two to ensure that the batch is blended evenly. This can take up to three straight minutes of blending, so don’t worry if it seems like it’s taking a while. Taste for seasoning and add more lemon juice and/or salt as needed and whir through the blender one more time to incorporate your seasonings into the mix. If you’re adding other flavorings, add them either before or after this last blend depending on whether or not you want them chunky or fully incorporated into the mix. Scrape out of the blender or processor bowl and enjoy with pita, crackers, veggies, in a wrap or pocket sandwich or just out of a spoon.