We all love hummus in this house, especially G (age 4). It’s very handy for slathering on bread or crackers, or for dipping, whether with chopped veg or crisps/potato chips.

I still haven’t perfected my hummus and actually the first time I made it I looked what was in some store bought hummus and gave it a go!

Basic Hummus - what you’ll need

Chick peas, tahini paste, garlic, cumin, lemon juice, olive oil

This is much easier done in one of those mini choppers, I have one of these:

 

I have mashed chick peas with a fork/potato masher, but this gives much better results and it’s faster.

So I put garlic to taste into it, 2 or 3 cloves for us as we love it, and almost fill it with chick peas, then chop.

Then in goes the tahini paste, I use about 3 tablespoons of light tahini paste, it would be less of dark, which is stronger, about 1/2 tsp of cumin and a few tablespoons of lemon juice. Now traditionally you’re supposed to pour in olive oil, about 1/4 of the way up the container. Basically, pop in enough so you get that slightly runny paste look of hummus. If you err on the cautious side you can just keep adding it till you’re comfortable with it.

However, I make it low-fat, so I just pop a bit of olive oil in before serving for those who want it. I actually use cooled boiled water to make the right consistency.

Now taste it, you want a bit of a tang from the lemon juice, so if you can’t taste it add a bit more. If it just doesn’t seem hummus-y then add some more tahini, bit more cumin if you want it a little spicier, some salt if you think it needs it. We don’t use much salt in some things.

And there we go!

Now you can do other things with it! If you see what they add to hummus in the shops then you can to!

So far I’ve just added pesto, which is very nice.

Otherwise, you could add a roasted red pepper, or, more likely in my case, I’ll experiment with unroasted pepper!

Next I’ll be trying black olives, we only have green this month!

Or you could add chilli powder.

Love hummus!