What Is Hummus and How Can I Use It?
Here's everything worth knowing about hummus and how to pick it, what it are, how to store it, and what to use instead, plus 7 recipes to cook tonight.
Key Points
- A Middle Eastern dip of chickpeas blended with tahini, lemon, garlic, and salt.
- Works as a dip, a thick sandwich spread, or a sauce thinned with water.
- For silky texture, peel the chickpeas or simmer them with a little baking soda.
- Blend cold tahini with ice water a spoonful at a time so it loosens instead of seizing.
- Keeps four to five days in the fridge under a film of olive oil; freezes for months.
What are hummus?
Hummus is a thick, creamy dip and spread from the Levant and broader Middle East. It is built from cooked chickpeas blended with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. The name is simply the Arabic word for chickpea, and the full traditional name, hummus bi tahini, means chickpeas with tahini.
At its best it is silky rather than grainy. It tastes tangy from the lemon and faintly bitter from the sesame paste, with raw garlic giving it a sharp edge. A drizzle of olive oil and a dusting of paprika or za'atar on top is standard.
One batch stretches across a whole week. It works as a dip and a sandwich spread, and thins down into a sauce.
How to Use Hummus
The default move is dipping. Warm pita and raw vegetables scoop straight from the bowl, and so do crackers and falafel. Spread it thick on a wrap or sandwich and it does the job of both mayonnaise and cheese, as in Deb's Hummus Sandwiches and the pita-stuffed Middle Eastern Sandwiches.
Thin it with a spoonful of water or extra lemon and it becomes a sauce you can spoon under roasted vegetables. Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Hummus & Crispy Kale does exactly that, using the dip as a warm bed rather than a cold side.
It also takes well to riffs. Blend in roasted red pepper or beets for color, fold in herbs and nuts as in Herbed Hummus with Pistachios, or stir it into Hummus Guacamole for a heartier dip.
Pairing and Common Mistakes
Hummus leans Mediterranean. Olive oil, lemon, garlic, cumin, parsley, mint, and warm flatbread are its natural partners. It also pairs with grilled lamb and roasted eggplant, while sharp pickles cut its richness and a pinch of sumac on top wakes up the whole bowl.
The most common mistake is a grainy texture. Canned chickpeas have tough skins, and leaving them on keeps the dip gritty no matter how long you blend. Simmering the chickpeas with a little baking soda loosens the skins so they slip off.
The second mistake is going too thick. Cold tahini seizes and the mix turns to paste, so blend in ice water a tablespoon at a time until it loosens and turns pale. Underseasoning is the third problem: hummus needs more lemon and salt than you expect.
Substitutes
If you have no tahini, smooth natural peanut butter or almond butter stands in, though it pushes the flavor away from sesame. A spoonful of toasted sesame oil plus extra olive oil gets you closer to the original taste.
No chickpeas? White beans such as cannellini blend into a milder, softer dip. Cooked edamame makes a green version instead. Both behave like chickpeas whether you use them in a sandwich or as a sauce base.
As a spread, mashed avocado or a thick yogurt-garlic sauce covers the same role on a wrap, even if neither tastes like hummus. For the lemon, bottled juice works, but fresh is noticeably brighter.
Buying and Storing Hummus
Store-bought hummus sits in the refrigerated case in flavors from plain and roasted-garlic to roasted-red-pepper and lemon, plus whipped versions that are lighter.
Read the label. The best ones list chickpeas and tahini near the top rather than water and starch. Brands vary a lot in how much tahini they actually use.
Homemade is cheaper and better. A food processor gets you there in five minutes from canned chickpeas, so it is the economical route if you eat it often.
Keep any hummus tightly covered in the refrigerator, where it lasts about four to five days. Smooth the surface and pour a thin film of olive oil over the top to keep it from drying and crusting. It separates as it sits, so stir before serving.
Hummus also freezes for up to three to four months. Thaw it overnight in the fridge and beat in a little olive oil to bring the texture back.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 豆沙
- British (UK) term
- Hummus
- en français
- houmous
- en español
- hummus
Recipes using hummus
There are 7 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Bruschetta Hummus Stuffed Zucchini
Topped with a simple bruschetta this is a perfect side dish to enjoy all summer.
Hummus Guacamole
Hummus guacamole: a Mediterranean-Mexican mash-up dip with avocado, hummus, tomato, scallion, and green chiles. Vegan, high-fiber, ready in 15 minutes. Serve with pita wedges.
Middle Eastern Sandwiches
Middle Eastern pita sandwich stuffed with hummus, tabouli, crumbled feta, olives, and crisp romaine. A fast vegetarian lunch with Mediterranean flavors and a lemon-dill drizzle.
Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Hummus & Crispy Kale
Sweet potatoes topped with sweet caramel onions, creamy hummus and crispy kale chips. It's even vegan and vegetarian but beefy enough to satisfy even the meat lovers.
Deb's Hummus Sandwiches
Vegan hummus pita sandwiches with whole-wheat pita, pickled red onion, mixed greens, and chopped red bell pepper. Quick lunch, no cooking, ready in 20 minutes.
Herbed Hummus with Pistachios
Store-bought hummus upgraded with fresh watercress, cilantro, and chopped pistachios. Quick 20-minute appetizer spread.
Pumpkin Hummus, Caramelized Onion & Fontina Cheese Pizzas (Halloween)
Use the pumpkin hummus recipe from this site to make this amazing pizza. I love to fool around in the kitchen and I came up with this pizza and my parents love it. For the onions, cut them from one root end to the others and then slice them in little strips between the roots. They will be narrower on the ends and this keeps them from disintegrating during the caramelizing and cooking process
