Vegan Lentil Hummus
Hummus is great as a snack or a light meal. You can eat it with bread and raw vegetables. You can make hummus with any bean or legume you happen to have such as chickpeas, white or black beans and any kind of lentil. I must admit green lentils are not my favorite for this recipe. I much prefer red lentils but green was what I had on hand so it’s what I used.
I usually eat hummus with tortilla chips, harvest snaps or veggies but sometimes I spread it on a sandwich wrap and then load the wrap up with greens etc.
Like I said earlier, green lentils are not my first choice to use for hummus but it is a pretty economical choice. If you cook your own chickpeas from dry it’s pretty comparable to using green lentils. It costs me about $1.69 for a 16 oz bag of dry lentils and it’s about $1.99 for the same size bag of chickpeas a.k.a. garbanzo beans. There’s usually cooking instructions on bags of dry beans but if you have an instant pot that makes everything much easier. Put the dry beans right in, no need to soak them. Add in water until it comes up about an inch above the beans then press the button for chili/beans. Make sure the steam valve is closed and walk away. Whenever you come back half an hour later or more, it will be done! Lentils don’t need anything special. They don’t need to soak ahead of time and they cook in the exact same way as you would cook rice, in fact, sometimes I cook rice and lentils together in the same pot or rice cooker.
I hope this blogpost gives you some inspiration for what to do with beans and legumes. If there is a recipe you want to make but you don’t have the bean or legume the recipe calls for, try swapping it out with one that you do have.
IRecipe Ingredients:
1 Cup of dry lentils
2 Cups of water
1/4 Cup of olive oil [or any oil]
1/4 Cup of tahini [there is no substitute for this and I don’t recommend skipping this]
2 teaspoons of onion powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 Tablespoon of Tader Joe’sCuban Style Citrusy Garlic Seasoning [if you don’t have this you can add lemon juice and more garlic to your taste]
1/8 cup of vinegar with 1 teaspoon of sugar dissolved into it
1/2 tablespoon of salt
1/4 cup of water [add more 1 tablespoon at a time if needed. the hummus might thicken in the fridge. you can always add more water if this happens]
1-2 Tablespoons of chili crisp, onion crisp optional
First cook the lentils in the water in a pot over medium to low heat until the water is absorbed and the lentils are tender. you can use a rice cooker or instant pot. Once the lentils are cooked set them aside to cool down. They don’t have to be room temperature but they shouldn’t be steaming.
Put the lentils in a food processor or blender along with all of the other ingredients except for the chili crisp. Blend everything until smooth. How long this takes depends on the type of blender or food processor you use. Blend it until you are happy with the texture.
Put the hummus in a storage container and mix in the chili crisp if you are choosing to use it. When I serve up the hummus I like to put it in a bowl and make a well in the middle with the back of a spoon and put a dollop of chili crisp in it or if you’re not into spicy foods I recommend putting a little extra virgin olive oil in the middle or drizzle the oil on top in a circular motion. It adds to the appeal if you sprinkle pine nuts, pumpkin seeds or even crispy garlic around the top of the hummus.