Homemade Hummus with Black Olives

It’s so much cheaper to make hummus than to buy it in the shops, not to mention easy peasy. Homemade hummus will be ready in a few minutes and even better, you can tailor it to exactly what you fancy or to the meal it will be accompanying! There are a million and one combinations of ingredients, either just throwing one or two additions to a traditional recipe or completely changing it up by substituting component parts. Here are just a few:

Play with the colours too. Beets for red, spinach for green, even white bean rather than chickpea for a lighter cream etc. This is great for a dinner party, such an easy show-stopper combination of dips to get people talking, and made in only a few minutes by altering just one ingredient!

I like a traditional hummus base, rich with tahini, quality olive oil and chickpeas but often play about with cheeky additions to change the flavour. That way the result can be used for pretty much anything, from a salad or toast topping, pizzas, dips, sandwiches, even a topping for grilled chicken! On the other hand I do love this recipe for Thai-inspired hummus from ASpicyPerspective. Definitely reminds me of the beach!

Ingredients

• 1 can chickpeas
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp lighter tahini
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp water
• 7-8 pitted black olives
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Pinch of black pepper
• Sesame seeds for serving

Method

*I don’t have a food processor in my new student house yet, sacrilege I know but my smoothie blender did really well!!*

First, drain your chickpeas and give them a quick wash with cold water as the can water can be a little bitter. Some recipes call for adding all the ingredients in a specific order, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference to me, so I throw them all in, except for the flavouring ingredient (in this case my olives). Add all the base ingredients in and turn the processor up to high for about a minute. This whips up the chickpeas to give a lighter creamy texture.

Once combined, give the base mixture a taste. If you want to change anything, add a little bit of summat to make it exactly how you like it, before adding the punchy flavour. In this case I didn’t add any extra salt as the olives do that for me.

Add in your flavour! Whizz for about 10 seconds to incorporate but not completely paste this part so flecks can still be seen.

Transfer to a pretty bowl and top with a little extra olive oil, salt, pepper and sesame seeds. Refrigerate for a few days in the fridge or devour immediately!