Easy Hummus (Better than Store-Bought)

My favorite hummus recipe! With a few simple tricks, you can make creamy, smooth homemade hummus, and yes, it’s better than store-bought.

Watch the video

The secret to the smoothest hummus is the order in which you add ingredients to your food processor. Seriously, it’s that easy. Add tahini and lemon juice to your food processor, and then turn it on and process for a minute or until they whip up into a creamy paste. Watch our video and see how whipped and creamy they get.

Our family has been making this recipe for years. So many of our readers have made it and come back to tell us this is their FOREVER hummus recipe! Serve hummus with fluffy flatbread, pita bread, or sliced veggies, or spread onto wraps and bread for sandwiches. I also love it with homemade falafel!

How to make hummus from scratch

In the past, when grocery shopping, you could bet that one of us would throw a tub of hummus into our cart. That was until we figured out this simple hummus recipe that we believe is better than anything we could have found at the store. Bonus: it’s made with real, healthy ingredients and is vegan.

What is hummus?

Hummus is a delicious spread or dip made from chickpeas, tahini, lemon, and spices. It is a popular dish in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. You can find store-bought versions in the United States, but you should skip those and make your own. Let me show you how.

Hummus ingredients

• Chickpeas (or garbanzo beans) are the base for hummus. The softened beans break down into a smooth paste. You can use canned or home-cooked chickpeas in our recipe. I use them interchangeably, giving home-cooked chickpeas a slight edge regarding flavor. Here’s my method for cooking dried chickpeas.
• Tahini is a paste made from ground sesame seeds, making hummus taste incredible. You can buy tahini, or you can make it yourself. To make hummus that’s 100% from scratch, we use homemade tahini (it’s easy, I promise). Here’s our tahini recipe with a video showing how to make it.
• Fresh lemon juice is essential for great hummus, so skip the bottled juice and buy fresh lemons — 1 large or 2 medium lemons should do.
• Fresh garlic adds a little spice and zest. I add one small clove and find it’s just right. Add more for a garlicky kick, or substitute for more mellow roasted garlic and make roasted garlic hummus. Here’s how we roast garlic.
• Ground cumin and salt help to make it taste amazing, and the ground cumin adds a little more spice and richness.
• Olive oil makes the texture of the hummus luxurious. We also drizzle over the top of the swirly hummus when serving. I like fruity, light-flavored olive oils when making hummus.

In addition to the ingredients above, you can add more flavor and ingredients to your hummus. I love adding roasted red peppers for red pepper hummus, but olives, pine nuts, and extra spices are also great options. You can also add ingredients to the top of hummus, like in this spiced beef and feta hummus.

Can I make hummus without tahini?

In the hummus-loving world, there are two camps. Some love tahini’s zesty, tangy flavor; others can go without it. We like it both ways, but for the best hummus rivaling our favorite brands in the store, include tahini. If you want to make hummus without tahini, leave it out. A chickpea puree without it is still quite delicious. Just add more olive oil. Another option is to use natural, unsweetened, creamy peanut butter in its place.

What’s the secret to making the best hummus?

The secret to the best hummus is the order in which you add ingredients to your food processor. Seriously, it’s that easy. Tahini and lemon juice go in first. Then, before you add anything else, turn on the food processor and let it run for a minute or two.

See the photos below? I’m pouring tahini into a clean food processor in the first photo. After a minute of being whirled, whipped, and creamed in the food processor, it turns into the paste you see in the following image. It’s lighter in color and much thicker.

Now, we can add the remaining hummus ingredients, but make sure you stand back and let that food processor run. I also like adding the chickpeas in two batches, processing the first batch for a minute before following up with the rest.

Cold water or aquafaba is our last trick for fluffy, creamy, whipped hummus. After all the ingredients are added and processed into a smooth paste, I love to drizzle in some extra liquid with the processor still running. The liquid (and extra process time) turns the smooth mixture into a fluffy, luxurious dip! I use cold water in our video, but aquafaba (the liquid from cooking or canned chickpeas) works, too.

What is aquafaba?

Aquafaba is the liquid in a can of chickpeas or the cooking liquid left after cooking dried chickpeas. This starchy liquid can be used for various things (see our deep dive into aquafaba here). One way is to add aquafaba instead of water during the last step of making hummus. As it whips in the food processor, the aquafaba helps our hummus turn light and fluffy. One caution: taste the aquafaba before using it to ensure it isn’t too salty. If it’s on the saltier side, use less salt in the hummus or substitute with cold water.

Do you need to peel the chickpeas?

No, you do not need to peel the chickpeas for fantastic hummus, but it is a trick for making the absolute smoothest hummus. We’ve done it. For one can of chickpeas, you’re looking at about ten minutes to remove all the skins. We didn’t want to add extra time to our hummus recipe below, but to make sure, we tried it both ways: skinless chickpeas and chickpeas right out of the can.

In the photo above, the spoon of hummus on the left used skinless chickpeas. The right came from chickpeas straight out of the can.

Even from this photo, you can see that the skinless chickpeas (on the left) made for a slightly smoother hummus. Still, it wasn’t enough of a difference to warrant ten minutes of skinning chickpeas. Try it for yourself and see what you think!

More hummus recipes & dips

• Our hummus with roasted red peppers is extra creamy and delicious.
• I use hummus in these chicken lettuce wraps with honey Dijon marinated chicken.
• Make mini appetizer cups filled with hummus, cucumber, and tomato.
• Another favorite Middle Eastern dip is baba ganoush, similar to hummus but made with roasted eggplant instead of chickpeas.