Lemon and Garlic Hummus

 

I love hummus and this easy to make lemon and garlic hummus recipe is the best hummus recipe. We make a batch almost every week! It is really so quick, just toss all ingredients into the blender and ta-da, homemade hummus! 

I am always looking for more ways to eat beans. They are such a good source of plant-based protein, we aim to eat them everyday at as many meals possible. One cup of chickpeas contains a whopping 14.5 grams of protein and 12.5 grams of fiber. Sure protein is important, but what I really want to put in my body everyday is fiber. Did you know that only 5-9% of Americans are meeting the daily nutritional recommendations for fiber! According to the American Heart Association, A 2017 analysis in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine concluded that 95% of adults and children don’t consume the amount of fiber recommended for good health. Fiber is mostly found in fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains. American Heart Association says that “fiber has been shown to help protect against heart disease, diabetes, diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel syndrome, obesity and colorectal cancer. Fiber can help flush toxins from the body, lower cholesterol and promote weight loss because it helps people feel fuller while consuming fewer calories.”

Hummus is a delicious way to sneak more beans (and more fiber) into your diet, plus it is so versatile. We eat it on everything from veggie wraps to pizza. For a delicious and healthy snack, we like to serve this tasty hummus with carrots and my favorite, beets sticks.

Powdered Spices Are Best

For years I was making hummus the hard way, chopping up onions, garlic, and other ingredients. Then I realized that powdered onions and garlic work so much better. They help to make a super smooth hummus, additionally, they don’t have the bite of raw onions and garlic. The best part is powdered spices are so much quicker and easier! Making this switch has made my hummus not only easier to make but so much tastier.

You can make this hummus with dried beans, but I prefer to use canned garbanzo bean as they make a much creamier hummus. Plus this is only a 5-minute recipe when using canned beans. Using dried beans is certainly cheaper, but plan ahead because you will need to soak your garbanzo beans and then cook them according to the instructions on the packaging. Cooking garbanzo beans usually takes somewhere between 1-2 hours and you want really soft beans for hummus.

What’s the difference between chickpeas and garbanzo beans?

Absolutely nothing! Chickpeas and garbanzo beans are the same bean, just different names. Chickpea is the common English name while garbanzo is the Spanish term, but they can totally be used interchangeably. Check out this article for an in-depth explanation of chickpea vs. garbanzo bean semantics. Now that we’ve got that cleared up, let’s make some hummus!

No Tahini?

No problem! If you don’t have any tahini you can always grind up some sesame seeds. That’s all tahini is anyway! The hummus won’t be quite as smooth as when you make it with tahini, but the flavor will be great. If you’re blender is not high power, try blending the sesame seeds in a coffee grinder. Time to get cooking!

 

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