Super-silky houmous

Ingredients:

• 1 x 700 g jar of chickpeas
• ½ a clove of garlic
• ground cumin
• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 1 lemon

Method:

Tip 1 x 700g jar of chickpeas (juices and all) into a blender.

Peel and add ½ a clove of garlic, along with a good pinch of sea salt, black pepper and ground cumin.

Drizzle in 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and 2 tablespoons of tahini.

Finely grate in the zest of ½ a lemon zest and squeeze in all the juice, then whiz until super-smooth and silky.

Taste and adjust the seasoning, if needed, then decant back into the original jar for storing in the fridge. To serve, I like to make a well in the middle, kiss it with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of ground cumin.

Tips:

HELPFUL HACK

Houmous is delicious served with crunchy veggies for dunking, such as celery, fennel, carrots, radishes and cucumber. To keep them crisp, crunchy and stop them from drying out, fill a bowl with lightly salted ice-cold water, add a good splash of vinegar, then submerge your prepped crunchy veggies. Pop in the fridge until needed – they will keep in perfect condition for 3 to 4 days. Not only that, they’ll also take on a lovely light pickled flavour.

EASY SWAPS

Think of this recipe as a principle – you can also make houmous with butter beans, black beans, cannellini beans, or even edamame beans. Delicious!

FLAVOUR BOOST

You can take your houmous in lots of different directions, depending on what you fancy. Try whizzing jarred peppers or roasted veg, such as squash or beetroot into the mix, or a handful of soft fresh herbs. You can also play around with the texture by leaving it quite chunky, stirring through some whole chickpeas or topping with spiced crispy chickpeas.

EASY SWAPS

If you don’t have tahini at home, you can make this recipe with unsweetened peanut butter – it’s not classic, but a great little cheat to have up your sleeve.