This silky, creamy and indulgent homemade Lebanese hummus will be ready in 30 minutes and can be made days in advance (if you’d like). Plus, it’s not as complicated as you might think! In fact, making hummus is really easy and it’s naturally vegan.
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This Lebanese hummus recipe with canned chickpeas is easy to make, even though the method is, admittedly, a little longer than many super quick hummus recipes. However, this recipe makes the creamiest, silkiest, most indulgent hummus ever.
🌟 Why this recipe works
- Tried and tested – we’ve been making this exact recipe for years and years. When we realised that hummus was actually an easy thing to make at home, we set ourselves the task of creating the best Lebanese hummus recipe ever.
- Seal of approval – it always gets the biggest thumbs up from friends and family, and we always ask for harsh criticism!
- The perfect balance of flavourful ingredients - cumin, lemon juice and garlic. We recommend following the measurements exactly for the best results. You may think it needs more garlic, but please trust us (we LOVE garlic too) that in this recipe, less really is more.
🍽 Equipment Needed
While we do try to keep equipment to a minimum in our recipes, in order to make this Lebanese hummus from scratch, you’ll need a few pieces of equipment. To blend it into the silky mix, you’ll need a good quality blender or cup blender. It’s then important to use measuring spoons to get the exact measurements needed and a small saucepan to simmer the chickpeas.
📋 Ingredient Notes
These ingredients and instructions are an overview of the recipe, and go with the process photographs. For detailed ingredients, instructions and notes, head to the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Chickpeas - the OG ingredient! Of course, it’s chickpeas. You can use canned chickpeas or dried chickpeas that need to be soaked overnight before use.
- Tahini - AKA sesame seed paste. It’s important to get a tahini that’s good quality. Check the ingredients and make sure that the tahini only has one ingredient: sesame seeds. It’s ideal if the tahini is runny, but if it has separated, just give it a good stir before adding it to the mix. Tahini is a critical ingredient and Lebanese hummus wouldn’t taste the same without it.
- Garlic - it wouldn’t be hummus without garlic! Just one clove. Please trust our judgement and don’t use more than one clove, it will be too overpowering otherwise.
- Lemon Juice – instead of plopping the lemon juice in at any time, it’s important to allow the garlic to mellow in the lemon juice first. There’s a nerdy scientific reason for this (find out below!).
- Baking Soda – it’s so important to boil the chickpeas in hot water and baking soda. The baking soda is what helps to soften the chickpea shells. Therefore this is what makes the Lebanese Hummus so deliciously creamy.
🔪 Step by step instructions
1. To make the Lebanese hummus, first place the chickpeas in a small saucepan and add just enough water to cover them. Stir in the baking soda and then bring to a boil. Be careful as the baking soda will bubble up when added to the water. So don’t put too much water in as otherwise it may bubble over the edge of the pan. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
Keep a close eye on it as the baking soda can make the water a lot more likely to bubble up during cooking, so you may need to turn the temperature down to prevent this. After 20 minutes, once the chickpeas are really soft and the skins are starting to fall off, drain and rinse with cool water.
2. While the chickpeas are cooking, put the garlic, salt and lemon juice in a food processor or blender. Blitz until the garlic is finely chopped. Scrape any garlic that may be stuck to the sides back down into the lemon juice and leave it to mellow while the chickpeas cook.
3. Add the tahini to the food processor and blend for 30 seconds. It will seize up and become thick at this point, but don’t worry.
4. Add a couple of tablespoons of very cold water (the colder the better) and blend again and it will loosen. If the mix is very thick, add another 1-3 tablespoons of water, one at a time, and blend until you end up with a smooth mix.
5. Now add the chickpeas.
6. Then pour in the olive oil.
7. Next, pop in the cumin powder and finally blend until smooth. Again, scrape the mix from the sides down into the blender to make sure nothing gets missed, and blend again until silky smooth.
8. Give it a taste and add a bit more salt, lemon juice or cumin depending on how you like your hummus. You can also add a bit more olive oil or cold water to get it even creamier if that's needed.
Serve it up in a bowl with a sprinkle of paprika on top!
Check out this video for a handy visual guide to making this Lebanese hummus:
👩🍳 Expert tips
- Boil the chickpeas in hot water – boiling the chickpeas allows them to become super soft. Therefore they will blend into the creamiest possible Lebanese hummus
- Add baking soda to the water – we stumbled across this tip a few years ago and it helps to break down the shells of the chickpeas, making them even softer than just soaking them with water! The baking soda makes the water more alkaline (higher pH) which makes the shell of the chickpeas more soluble and easier to break down. We choose to soak the chickpeas in the water like this instead of removing the shells from them which would be very time consuming.
- Ice cold water – when you blend the tahini with the lemon juice, it will seize up and become really thick. Ice water helps it to loosen and become thinner.
- Allow the garlic to sit in the lemon juice – garlic can have a really harsh flavour, especially when combined with mellow ingredients like chickpeas and tahini. Blitzing the garlic up with lemon juice helps to neutralize the harshness of the garlic, leaving a much more pleasant flavour for the hummus. We didn’t make it up, this is proven by science.
- Keeps in the fridge for 5 days – this means you can make the hummus ahead of time. Just make sure it’s kept in an airtight container until you need it.
- Variations – hummus is so versatile and you can make so many different variations. Treat this Lebanese hummus as a base and you can add other ingredients such as beetroot, roasted red peppers or even edamame peas, amongst a multitude of other ingredients.
💭 FAQs
Yes, hummus is generally always vegan. Sometimes when it’s prepackaged, it might not be vegan so it’s always good to check the packet. But if you’re following an authentic Lebanese hummus recipe, it should always be vegan.
Yes - generally all of the ingredients in hummus are gluten-free. It’s also made with whole foods.
Lebanese hummus is great as a dip with crudites (e.g. peppers, carrots and cucumber), can be served as part of a Mediterranean platter or even in pittas or wraps with falafel and all the trimmings. It’s also great as part of a main meal, such as Morrocan Roasted Cauliflower.
Yes. Hummus should be refrigerated in an airtight container. When kept in the fridge in this way, it should last for 5 days.
🥙 What to serve with it
Variations
Try making even more types of hummus, like this Baba Ganoush Hummus, Roasted Lime & Jalapeno Hummus, Cannellini Bean Hummus or Black Eyed Pea Hummus to name just a few!
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📖 Recipe
Silky Lebanese Hummus in 30 Minutes
Ingredients
- 250 g chickpeas - 1 tin drained and rinsed
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ½ cup tahini
- 2-5 tablespoon cold water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin powder
Garnish
- 1 Pinch of paprika
- olive oil
Instructions
- Place the chickpeas in a small saucepan and add just enough water to cover them, stir in the baking soda and then bring to a boil.½ teaspoon baking soda, 250 g chickpeas
- Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Keep a close eye on it as the baking soda can make the water a lot more likely to bubble up, so you may need to turn the temperature down to keep it from boiling over.
- While the chickpeas are cooking, put the garlic, salt and lemon juice in a food processor or blender and blitz until the garlic is finely chopped. Scrape any garlic that may be stuck to the sides back down into the lemon juice and leave it to mellow while the chickpeas cook.1 clove garlic, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ cup lemon juice
- Once the chickpeas are really soft and the skins are starting to fall off, drain and rinse with cool water.
- Add the tahini to the food processor and blend for 30 seconds, then add a couple of tablespoons of cold water (the colder the better) and blend again. If the mix is very thick, add another 1-3 tablespoons of water to the mix, one at a time, and blend until you get a creamy, smooth mix.½ cup tahini, 2-5 tablespoon cold water
- Now add the chickpeas, olive oil and cumin and blend until smooth. Again, scrape the mix from the sides down into the blender to make sure nothing gets missed, and blend again until everything is silky smooth.250 g chickpeas, 1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ teaspoon ground cumin powder
- Give it a taste and add a bit more salt, lemon juice or cumin depending on how you like your hummus. You can also add a bit more olive oil or cold water to get it even creamier if you'd like.
- Serve it up in a bowl with a pinch of paprika and a drizzle of olive on top.olive oil, 1 Pinch of paprika
Notes
- It’s important to boil the chickpeas in hot water first - this is what makes this hummus so much better than usual hummus.
- We use one clove of garlic. Please trust us on this! In this recipe less is more when it comes to garlic.
- Be careful when adding the baking soda to the water as it may bubble up. You may need to turn the heat down slightly until it levels out, which should only take a few seconds.
- This hummus keeps in the fridge for 5 days in an air tight container.
- It can be frozen and kept in the freezer for 3 months. Defrost it overnight, the day before you need it.
- The nutritional information applies to splitting the full amount over 4 portions. However, it will serve more people than that as part of a buffet.
- Try variations such as adding beetroot, roasted peppers or edamame beans.
Sharon Saunders
Ou default recipe for hummus, so creamy and tasty. Had this for lunch the last 2 days, with roasted peppers in pitta bread and as part of a Mexican bowl. Oh, and a snack one day with peppers for dipping.