Until this recipe, I felt about hummus the same way that I feel about kale. I knew that I should love it, but I didn’t. After all, hummus is a plant-based eater’s staple snack! If you could peer into the refrigerators of the roughly 2% of vegans living in the U.S. you would probably find a tub of hummus in 99.9% of them. I’ve been living a lie.
I decided to analyze what it was about hummus that didn’t ring my bell and after countless taste tests, I realized it wasn’t the garbanzo beans or the cumin or the garlic. It was the tahini! The tahini deadened the other lively flavors found in traditional hummus. So out it went. The second thing I learned was that a hummus heavy on lemon makes it nearly addictive to me. I really amped the lemon in this recipe – adding lots of juice but also lemon zest. Now if you peered into my refrigerator, 99.9% of the time you’d find a tub of this hummus in it.
Because I greatly reduced the number of posts published per year, I decided to take a look back through my old recipes and spend a little time taking new photographs of some old favorites. It’s been a laborious yet rewarding process. I have some nice recipes lost back there in the past, but the photos from those days didn’t showcase them the way they could have. Here are the ones I’ve done so far (I’ve been busy!):
- Oil-free Curried Couscous & Vegetable Salad
- Oil-free Southwest Bean & Rice Salad
- No-Knead Cardamom-Coffee Braided Loaf
- Oil-free Oat Quickbread w/ Sunflower Seeds & Flaxseeds
- Oil-free Chocolate-Ginger-Orange Cookies
- Superfood Cookies: Hemp Seeds, Oats, Cacao Nibs & Dried Cherries
- Oil-free Thai Tomato Soup
- Oil-free Vegetable Fried Rice
- Tofu Salad Sandwiches w/ Oil-free Roasted Pepper & Olive Salad
- Oil-free Apple Butter Cookies
- Espresso-Cacao Shortbread with Dates
- Oil-free Lemony Baked Tofu
- Oil-free Sweet Potato Gnocchi
- Oil-free Coffee-Cacao Biscotti
Oil-free Lemon Hummus
Description
A super-lemony version of the classic hummus.
Ingredients
- 1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 15 ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
- Zest of 2 lemons
- Juice of 2 lemons (about 1/3 cup)
- 1 tsp. cumin
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- ground black pepper
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and process until very smooth. You’ll need to scrape down the bowl a few times. Transfer to a serving bowl alongside crackers, chips, or crusty bread – or into an air-tight container to store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.
Notes
- Herby variation: add a handful of fresh cilantro or parsley with the other ingredients.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 10
- Calories: 175
- Sugar: 5
- Sodium: 77
- Fat: 3
- Saturated Fat: 0
- Unsaturated Fat: 2
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 30
- Protein: 9
- Cholesterol: 0
Yes I think you nailed it as far as what the tahini does. And also unless you use tahini a LOT, it sits around and gets rancid very quickly which doesn’t help the flavor at all.
Yum! 🙂
Yes to this recipe!
I can’t say I’m a big hummus eater either, but this looks amazing. It’s hard to find a decent hummus without added garbage. Hence the fact you make your own. I made some once and it was…not good. Perhaps this will turn my thoughts around!
I love hummus, and I’m not even vegan. The first time I made it, I cooked dried garbanzo beans — boy, did that take a while! I’m with you on the kale though.
Wow, you have been busy- that’s a lot of work! I’m really excited to try this one because, although I love tahini, it’s the one ingredient I have to seek out to make hummus. I feel like you just made hummus much more convenient., Haha. Can’t wait to try this one!
There are some REALLY bad photos in my blogging past ;-)! Hope you enjoy the hummus, Melissa!
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