Smoked Paprika Hummus (No Tahini)

Yum

I love hummus. It’s an awesome quick snack that can be filling for times when you don’t have the energy or desire to create a full meal. But, I feel like it can be a bit overpriced for the amount you get at the grocery stores. During quarantine, I decided to make my own hummus, but I didn’t want to have to track down and pay for an entire jar of tahini. So, I figured out a way to make it without tahini while keeping the flavor and texture. This is a great pantry recipe that only uses 4 main ingredients that you likely already have!

Why you should make smoked paprika hummus

Basically, it’s an INSANELY easy assembly and quick to make, provided you have a food processor or blender—and I’m sure people say this all the time, but this time I mean it—you likely already have most of this stuff in your cabinets. All that you need are 2 cans of chickpeas (or you can halve the recipe if you only have one can), 1 lemon, 1 clove of garlic, a tablespoon of smoked paprika (hello, Trader Joe’s!), some olive oil and salt.

Flavor-wise the smoked paprika reminds me of smoked meats, but this recipe is actually vegan! I eat this stuff on red bell peppers (as pictured above), my favorite Sriracha-flavored lentil chips, cucumbers, pita (obviously) and also on salads. It’s an excellent protein sub for when you’re out of, or don’t want to eat meat.

Ingredients

To make this recipe, you will need:

• Chickpeas
• Olive oil
• Garlic
• Smoked Paprika
• Lemon Juice
• Salt
• Cilantro (optional for topping)

What to eat with smoked paprika hummus

You can pair smoked paprika hummus with pretty much anything that you’d pair with regular hummus, except it’ll taste a lot better. My favorite thing to dip in this hummus is raw red pepper or whole wheat pita (I love the nuttiness of the whole wheat bread with the smokiness of the hummus). I also eat this hummus on salads and in veggie sandwiches as a protein if I’m out of meat. It’s so versatile!

Pro Tips/Things to Know About This Recipe

Chickpeas

I only use canned chickpeas for this recipe. This is is important for two reasons:

1. They’re already cooked—making the recipe faster to assemble.

2. The brand I use is low-sodium, so salt-wise, this recipe assumes that you’re starting with low-sodium chickpeas (135mg of sodium) to begin with.

Salt: Before salting, be sure to check how much sodium is in the beans, and alter the amount of salt in the recipe accordingly. You also have the option to add salt after you have mixed all the other ingredients in the blender or food processor. Remember you can always add more salt, but you can’t take away salt.

Tenderness: If your canned chickpeas aren’t fully tender (fall apart easily when pierced by a fork), you may want to simmer your chickpeas for a while until they are fully tender. Starting with tender chickpeas helps ensure that the final product comes out smooth and almost creamy, instead of grainy.

Garlic

When preparing the garlic for this recipe, I usually use raw garlic that I mince by hand. Personally, I don’t love the flavor of the pre-minced garlic. Also, I use raw instead of roasted/fried or sautéed garlic, because I am only using 1 clove. As the humus sits, the garlic will permeate further into the hummus, and I’ve found that using more than one raw garlic clove can overpower the humus.

Personally, I hate when I eat something that is so garlicy that I can’t get the flavor out of my mouth for hours, so I like to avoid having too much. That said, if you’re using any kind of cooked garlic, you may want to add more than one clove, based on your personal preference, as cooked garlic tends to have a bit more of a mellow flavor.

Olive Oil

*Ina Garten voice* Make sure you use good olive oil…It really does make a difference in a recipe like this.

Smoked Paprika

I know that smoked paprika can sometimes be hard to find in your local grocery store (at least it was for me here in Brooklyn, anyway). Usually I get my smoked paprika from Trader Joe’s because it’s relatively inexpensive, but you can also find it for pretty affordable prices online as well!

It should likely be noted that tying to substitute regular paprika for smoked will not leave you with any of the smokiness of smoked paprika, which will alter the final product significantly.

Lemon Juice

The measurement of the “juice of 1 lemon” below assumes that you’re using a juicy lemon that is ripe. If you are working with lemons that are not ripe, you may need about ¼ to ½ more of a lemon’s juice. The beauty of this recipe is that you can taste as you go, so feel free to add as much or as little lemon juice as you’d like.

Halving this Recipe

There have been many times that I’ve tried to half this recipe because I only had one can of chickpeas in the cabinet instead of two. There are just 2 things to watch out for when halving this recipe:

1. Lemon juice: The biggest challenge I always run into when halving this recipe is that I sometimes add too much lemon juice when I just use half of a ripe lemon. That said, I would start with the juice of ¼ lemon and add more to taste.

2. Liquid content: The liquid content in this recipe is an especially delicate balance because we are not using tahini as a thickening agent. That said, you may want to start with no aquafaba and just use the lemon juice and olive oil at first. If you’d like your hummus to have more liquid from there, add the aquafaba 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing the humus between each addition.