Learn how to make an easy restaurant-style ultra-smooth hummus. This recipe uses canned chips, garlic, tahini, and olive. And the secret to making smooth hummus is one simple technique!

I finally made an ultra-smooth and creamy hummus.

This is certainly not the first recipe of it’s kind. But this one is my all-time favorite. For me, hummus has to be creamy, scoopable with a pita chip, and has the perfect amount of seasonings. A harmonious bite through and through. This recipe is one that I’ve worked extra hard on because, right now, you can’t always find your favorite convenience foods at the grocery store. I’ll show you how you can easily make homemade hummus, way better than the store-bought stuff.

But first, have you noticed how store-bought and restaurant-style hummus are very different? I find the store-bought stuff just tastes like thick chickpea paste without too much flavor.

My recipe uses five simple ingredients (if you don’t count the salt and oil), most of which you probably already have at home. Except for one ingredient, most of these are pantry staples. I’ve shared a link below so you can order it straight to your door and then make what I call the best hummus of all time.

The main difference is that this recipe employs a simple technique before we process it into a dip. And as a result, we are left with the smooth garbanzo bean dip that’s perfect for serving with pita chips for a movie night snack or over your shawarma bowl for dinner!

Hummus is the ideal recipe to make if you stocked up on canned chickpeas with the current situation we have going on. With just a simple food processor, you can make hummus in around 20 minutes!

What is hummus?

Hummus is a creamy dip often made in Middle Eastern or sometimes Mediterranean cuisine. It’s made from cooked chickpeas (or garbanzo beans) and often includes tahini paste, lemon juice, and garlic for flavor. 

What do you need to make homemade hummus?

• Garbanzo bean: Or often called chickpeas. You’ll need one can for a single batch of this recipe. And don’t forget to save the liquid that the beans come packed it, it’s called aquafaba. It’s the perfect blending liquid, and we’ll use it later.
• Baking soda: Baking soda is the crucial ingredient in making smooth hummus, do not skip this ingredient!
• Garlic: I use one giant clove of garlic here and find it’s perfect for us. If you anticipate leftovers, I would suggest using a little less garlic than you usually like, as it does tend to spice up the hummus quite a bit as it sits. We love garlic (and I use a ton in my recipes, always), but even I use just 1-2 cloves!
• Tahini paste: Tahini paste is the backbone of any excellent hummus recipe. Tahini is made from toasting and grounding up sesame seeds and is used in tons of Middle Eastern cuisines. It’s also a key ingredient when you’re making baba ganoush.
• Lemon juice: I use about three tablespoons of lemon juice and find that to be the perfect sweet spot of us, it’s bright and zingy without being over-powering. Try it this way first, and you can always add more lemon juice (and cut back another tablespoon on the aquafaba )
• Olive oil: use a good quality extra virgin olive oil here, if possible. Since we aren’t cooking with it, the olive oil flavor does shine through.
• Seasonings: I season with kosher salt and ground cumin. The cumin is an optional ingredient, but it does add a ton of smoky flavor, just the way your favorite middle eastern restaurant makes it!

What is the secret to making the best hummus from scratch?

The secret to making the best hummus is using a teaspoon of baking soda and boiling the chickpeas for a short 10 minutes once you drain them from the can. Then, blend them with all the other ingredients. I know what you’re thinking; ‘those chickpeas are already cooked.’

Yes, they are. I grew up watching my mom cook dried chickpeas with a hint of baking soda, and not until recently did I realize that the reason her hummus was always so much smoother than mine was that she always boils chickpeas with baking soda.

So I played around with using a can of chickpeas and adding another 10 minutes of boiling time, and it worked even better than I had initially hoped.

Variations:

• Toasted sesame: replace one tablespoon of the olive oil with toasted sesame oil and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds to finish once plated
• Roasted red pepper: If you have half a jar of roasted red pepper, drain and add the red peppers in with the chickpeas when you’re blending to give it a unique flavor
• Spicy: Add 1-2 tablespoons of chili garlic sauce to add a spicy kick
• Kalamata olive: Add a ½ cup of sliced Kalamata olives in with the tahini, lemon juice, and garlic to blend into a smooth paste
• Pesto: replace 1-2 tablespoons of the olive oil with basil pesto and sprinkle with freshly chopped basil before serving
• Chipotle: Add 1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce when you’re blending the chickpeas. You can even add a bit of that adobo sauce.
• Add sumac: Swap out the cumin or add a simple of sumac  as a garnish
• Add Greek salad on top: When you’re garnishing the hummus, add a homemade marinated feta greek salad on top that you can then serve as a dip!

How to serve homemade hummus:

• On its own with pita crisps or pita bread
• with carrots, celery, and sweet peppers as an appetizer
• Seven-layer chickpea shawarma dip
• As a sauce for 20-minute Greek Gyros
• Beef shawarma bowls (I used baba ganoush in the pictures, but hummus would be equally delicious!)
• Serve alongside Persian chicken kebabs with pitas
• Serve alongside Greek Keftedes
• As a sauce for instant pot beef shawarmas
• As a sauce for Kofta pita sandwiches
• As a base for chicken gyros with French fries (you can omit the tzatziki!)

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