The Best Hummus
Learn how to make the best homemade hummus! It's ultra creamy, dreamy and light. This hummus recipe is easy to make, too—no need to peel your chickpeas!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
The best hummus is lusciously creamy, yet somehow light and fluffy. It’s beautifully smooth and swirled, and begging to be scooped up onto a wedge of pita bread. It’s nutty and tangy, thanks to the tahini, with notes of bright, fresh lemon and mellow garlic.
I encountered the most delicious hummus at Aladdin Cafe, a local Mediterranean restaurant. That hummus met all of the above characteristics, and I was hoping the owner might enlighten me with his techniques. When I asked, though, he replied, “It’s a secret,” with a sly smile and walked away.
I went home determined to learn how to make magnificently creamy hummus. First, I took the fancy flavorings out of my other hummus recipes to make plain hummus. It was dense, a little gritty, and harshly garlicky. I was so disappointed.
Next, I went to Google and opened up a million tabs to learn everything about hummus. You know me. Ten hummus attempts later, I’m ready to share all of my hummus tips and tricks with you. Get ready to make the best hummus of your life!
The internet at large raves that an Israeli chef named Michael Solomonov makes the very best hummus. It’s so good that Bon Appetit named his hummus their 2015 Dish of the Year. That’s some serious hummus.
Solomonov’s secret? He uses chickpeas that have been cooked until they’re so tender, they’re mushy.
He cooks his chickpeas with some baking soda, too. According to Bon Appetit, baking soda “raises the pH of the water and helps the little guys break down to a soft, pulpy mass… perfect for an ultra-smooth purée.”
Overcooked chickpeas seemed like a promising idea to me. You see, I once tried to make hummus with canned chickpeas that were oddly undercooked, and they made terrible hummus. No matter how long I blended the hummus, those undercooked chickpeas never blended into creamy oblivion.
Plus, baking soda helps break down the chickpea skins, which means you do not need to peel off the skins individually. Who has time for that?! I bet you don’t have time to soak your chickpeas overnight and cook them from scratch like Solomonov, either.
Here’s my time-saving solution: Just boil canned or leftover cooked chickpeas with baking soda for twenty minutes.
You can see the difference that baking soda makes in the photo below. See how the chickpeas on the right are popping open more? They are significantly softer in texture as well.
The chickpeas are ready to go after a quick rinse under cool running water, which rinses off the baking soda flavor and cools the chickpeas so your hummus doesn’t develop a weird outer film.
Are you as excited about this as I am? You can have this incredible hummus now-ish, not tomorrow! No chickpea peeling required.
I have a few more tips and techniques to making great hummus, so read on or scroll down for the full recipe and variations.
How to Make the Best Hummus
1) Mushy chickpeas
Cook canned or leftover cooked chickpeas according to step 1 below. This only adds 20 minutes to your hummus-making time, and it’s my number one tip for making perfect hummus at home.
Want to cook your chickpeas from scratch? You sure can—see the recipe notes.
Can you over-cook your chickpeas in an Instant Pot? I don’t recommend it—you’ll end up with a mess of chickpea mash clogging your vent and a puddle of chickpea cooking water surrounding your Instant Pot. I speak from experience.
2) Great tahini
All tahini is not created equally. When I was in Israel, Israelis’s spoke of tahini, or “t’hina,” with reverence. I learned that the best tahini comes from Ethiopia. Store-bought tahini in the U.S. varies widely in flavor, with some of them so bad that they’ve ruined my hummus.
My favorite brands of tahini? I had to try Solomonov’s favorite, Soom. I found it on Amazon (affiliate link) and I have to say that it is worth it. Second favorite? Trader Joe’s organic tahini, which is made from Ethiopian sesame seeds like Soom’s. Whole Foods 365 used to be my go-to, but I encountered a few bad jars that tasted so bad, I’m afraid to try again.
Don’t skimp on the tahini, either—you need to use 1/2 cup tahini per can of chickpeas for rich and irresistible hummus. I once toured an enormous hummus production facility and learned that they often reduce the cost of producing store-bought hummus by using less tahini. Sneaky!
3) Ice-cold water
Why do you always want to mix ice-cold water with tahini? This is another trick that I learned on my trip. I can’t find a scientific explanation, but it seems to help make the hummus light and fluffy, and lightens the color of the tahini to a pale ivory color.
4) Fresh-squeezed lemon juice
Store-bought lemon juice always tastes stale and sad, and it will make your hummus taste stale and sad. Buy lemons and your humus will taste fresh and delicious. I almost always add another tablespoon of lemon juice to my hummus for extra flavor before I plate it, but I’ll leave the tang factor up to you.
5) Garlic, mellowed in lemon juice
This is another trick from Solomonov—if you mince the garlic in the food processor or blender with the lemon juice and let that mixture rest for a few minutes, the garlic will lose its harsh, raw bite and mellow out. I tried it before and after, and he’s right! Here’s Serious Eats’ scientific explanation for why this works.
6) Olive oil, blended into the hummus and drizzled on top
Solomonov doesn’t blend any olive oil into his hummus, but I think that one tablespoon makes the hummus taste even more luxurious and creamy. I recommend it!
7) Ground cumin
The cumin is subtle and offers some “Je ne sais quoi,” if you will. It’s a common ingredient in plain hummus recipes, and makes the hummus taste a little more special.
Hummus Variations
This hummus recipe is plain (and by plain, I mean delicious), but you can blend any of the following in with the chickpeas to make variations.
- Green goddess hummus: 3/4 cup loosely packed fresh, leafy herbs
- Kalamata olive hummus: 3/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives
- Roasted garlic hummus: Cloves from 1 to 2 heads of roasted garlic
- Roasted red pepper hummus: 3/4 cup roasted red peppers, drained and sliced into strips
- Sun-dried tomato hummus: 3/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, rinsed and drained (from one 6.7-ounce jar)
- Toasted sesame hummus: 1/2 teaspoon in the hummus, plus 1 teaspoon drizzled on top
Hummus Garnishes
- Drizzle of olive oil
- Sprinkle of ground sumac, which is gloriously sour and deep pink, or paprika, which is basically flavorless but offers a splash of color
- Sesame seeds or seeded spice blend, such as dukkah
- Middle Eastern hot sauce, such as zhoug or shatta
- Chopped fresh parsley
Ok, let’s make some hummus! I’m dying to hear how this hummus turns out for you. Please let me know in the comments and tell me if overcooking your chickpeas makes all the difference!
You can also share a photo of your results on Instagram with the hashtag #cookieandkate so we can all see your results.
Watch How to Make Hummus
Best Hummus
Learn how to make the best homemade hummus! It’s creamy, dreamy and light. This hummus recipe is easy to make—no peeling chickpeas or overnight soak required. Recipe yields about 2 cups.
Ingredients
- 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas
- ½ teaspoon baking soda (if you’re using canned chickpeas)
- ¼ cup lemon juice (from 1 ½ to 2 lemons), more to taste
- 1 medium-to-large clove garlic, roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
- ½ cup tahini
- 2 to 4 tablespoons ice water, more as needed
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- Any of the following garnishes: drizzle of olive oil or zhoug sauce, sprinkle of ground sumac or paprika, chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Place the chickpeas in a medium saucepan and add the baking soda. Cover the chickpeas by several inches of water, then bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Continue boiling, reducing heat if necessary to prevent overflow, for about 20 minutes, or until the chickpeas look bloated, their skins are falling off, and they’re quite soft. In a fine-mesh strainer, drain the chickpeas and run cool water over them for about 30 seconds. Set aside (no need to peel the chickpeas for this recipe!).
- Meanwhile, in a food processor or high-powered blender, combine the lemon juice, garlic and salt. Process until the garlic is very finely chopped, then let the mixture rest so the garlic flavor can mellow, ideally 10 minutes or longer.
- Add the tahini to the food processor and blend until the mixture is thick and creamy, stopping to scrape down any tahini stuck to the sides and bottom of the processor as necessary.
- While running the food processor, drizzle in 2 tablespoons ice water. Scrape down the food processor, and blend until the mixture is ultra smooth, pale and creamy. (If your tahini was extra-thick to begin with, you might need to add 1 to 2 tablespoons more ice water.)
- Add the cumin and the drained, over-cooked chickpeas to the food processor. While blending, drizzle in the olive oil. Blend until the mixture is super smooth, scraping down the sides of the processor as necessary, about 2 minutes. Add more ice water by the tablespoon if necessary to achieve a super creamy texture.
- Taste, and adjust as necessary—I almost always add another ¼ teaspoon salt for more overall flavor and another tablespoon of lemon juice for extra zing.
- Scrape the hummus into a serving bowl or platter, and use a spoon to create nice swooshes on top. Top with garnishes of your choice, and serve. Leftover hummus keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 1 week.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Michael Solomonov, via The New York Times and Bon Appetit, and Yotam Ottolenghi.
How to cook dry chickpeas in a hurry for this recipe: In a large saucepan, combine 5 ounces (¾ cup) dried chickpeas and ½ teaspoon baking soda, and fill the pot with water. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat and skim off the surface foam as needed. Continue boiling over medium-high, adding more water if you start running out, until the chickpeas are very mushy and falling apart, about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. Drain in a fine-mesh colander, rinse under cool running water, and drain well before using. Start the recipe at step 2.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This recipe was absolutely fantastic. Yum. How long will it last in the frig?
Delicious! Creamy and smooth, almost whipped in texture. This recipe is the best one I have ever made so it will become the ONLY one I make! Just happened to have discovered Soom tahini on my own and had a fresh jar. I, too, think it’s the best tahini. And you are so right, it makes a difference in the final taste and texture. Thank you, thank you!
Delicious – I add my 5 stars to this hummus recipe – it is smooth, tasty and easy to make. The instructions are great.
This truly is the best hummus I’ve ever had hands down.
Here’s what I did differently: juiced 1 lemon instead of 1.5 or 2, used 1 garlic clove, used 1 ice cube instead of ice water, and no cumin (I don’t like cumin).
I did this all in my Ninja Food Chopper and it was easy clean up and delicious!
This is my go to recipe for Hummus. It is so creamy and delicious. I’ve made it so many times now and I just had to leave a review. Deserves more than a 5 star rating.
The best hummus I’ve ever tasted!
I didn’t have enough tahini so used only just over half the amount, and it was still delicious – light and beautifully balanced.
I later made it with the full amount of tahini, and it was lovely, but I liked it even better when all the flavours were so balanced that the tahini didn’t stand out – I’d say three-quarters of the amount in the recipe. (Maybe my tahini was a bit heavy so less worked better?)
So incredibly moreish! Thank you for this and all your recipes – your website is a treasure-trove!
Delicious hummus. This will be my go to recipe. I added everything bagel, black pepper, DanO’s Chipotle dry seasoning. I added ice cubes to get that smooth fluffy texture. I added sunflower oil to the top, along with smoked paprika. I used canned beans & boiled 20 minutes using baking soda in the water. It really makes the bean skins remove easily, and the hummus to fluff up. This recipe easily earned 5 stars. Thank you!
Our family loves store bought hummus. The brand we like is $5.50 for a container. My 8 year old son will eat the entire thing in one sitting which I can’t afford. lol. I went out on a limb this morning and made homemade hummus for the first time. Pat on the back. It was tasty and super simple and I had all the ingredients in the pantry (which makes it free right??)! Thanks for the great recipe Kate. :) Will definitely double the recipe and attempt to make weekly to keep up with the disappearing dip.
Brilliant recipe. Excellent flavour. Had to use quite a bit more than 2 tablespoons of water but turned out perfectly. Highly recommended.
Forget store bought hummus. I am never going back. This is A-mazing!
Delicious recipe – thank you!
Easy recipe, delicious results! Thank you!
I have a jar 400g of drained weight how to adjust the other quantities please?
Honestly, I don’t like hummus. But I detest avocado, especially on toast. So when my meal prep came down the line and called for avocado (yuck!) I knew I needed an alternative. YOU SAVED THE DAY! This recipe is great and the result has saved my palate! I actually really like this hummus. Thanks for sharing this recipe and letting me give it another try
This is the very best hummus recipe! It was so creamy with just the right proportion of tahini to chickpeas. Thank you!
THIS RECIPE IS AMAZING!! The hummus is so rich, creamy and smooth. This recipe has been my go-to for the past few weeks. 100% recommend.
Truely the best, creamiest hummus. I hate store bought hummus and thought that was what all hummus was like until I tried it at a Mediterranean restaurant. This is the closest I’ve come to making authentic at home! Love love love!
Sooooo good and easy
Followed instructions and this was the best hummus I’ve ever had, plain but creamy, light and fluffy…so good! Cooking the chickpeas was key! I didn’t think my large Vitamix container would process the chickpeas but the amount of lemon juice, bits of water and olive oil made it work. When plated I drizzled olive oil, paprika and added mini thinly sliced bell peppers on top, so delicious. My friend who USE TO BUY store-bought hummus cleaned the Vitamix container and so I’ll be making it once-a-week or until I get tired of it! Thank you, thank you for this recipe.
Can you add ripe advocates to this recipe?
I am utterly addicted to this hummus. I was never that big a fan until I started making my own with this recipe. I love it and so has every guest I’ve served it to. Thanks for putting it out there!
I’ve never made hummus before but after having some left over dried chick peas that I had used in a cabbage soup recipe I decided to try it. I had just roasted some garlic so I used that instead of minced and added everything else in your recipe. We ordered Cortas Lebanese tahini . Then I added some finely chopped roasted red peppers, a dash of smoked paprika and some ancho chili powder. It was super creamy and light and smooth and delicious. I’ll make it again soon. We’ve been dipping crackers and green pepper slices. I’ll never buy store made again! Thanks!!
Really loved your recipe. I have always bought pre-made hummus, but nothing compares to homemade. It tastes creamier and not as bitter as store bought. This is now my go-to recipe. Thank you for a delicious recipe.
This is fabulous! I’ll never buy store bought again.
Delish. Easy. Perfect.
I soaked dry chickpeas for 18 hours and pressure cooked for 25 mins with half tsp baking soda. Absolutely delicious hummus. I use it in tortilla wraps- hummus layered with a tabbouleh salad. So healthy and easy!
This is the best. Your instructions made it smooth and creamy. Delicious hummus.
Very nice recipe chef . You reminded me my childhood watching grandpa making it and yes he use crushed ice cubes , it’s been a long time since I had hummus,I will make some tomorrow nice and creamy like your recipe. Thank you for your effort
Super delicious, my family devoured this! Really creamy, flavorful, & fresh!
This hummus came out great! I added two red peppers that I roasted and peeled, it was delicious. I like the boiled chickpeas, great tip. I like the olive oil in it, too. Of course, you have to put a little on top, too.
Oops forgot the olive oil, still great, I’ll drizzle.
This hummus is a staple in our household! I double the recipe and blast .5lb dry chickpeas in the instant pot for 50min (15+ min NR). It’s like 15 minutes of hands-on work for a substantial batch of fantastic hummus. Even my toddler inhales it!
Highly recommend the Trader Joe’s tahini. I use a full jar for the double batch and don’t have to bother stirring it up first. Having a good tahini makes all the difference!
I recently made this recipe and had to substitute cashew butter and a little bit of sesame oil for the tahini. It was delicious! I’ll make is again, and again, and again!
The best! Make it all the time. Hard to buy it from the store when making fresh not an option.
BEST hummus recipe ever!! and I have been making it for 30 years now. I think the secret is the amount of tahini it asks for. I always double the recipe so thats a full cup of tahini! Oh and i don’t recook the beans .. i just throw them right into my ninja blender after draining. I also add more garlic – 4/5 cloves and a tsp more of cumin.
I have had several attempts at hummus, it was either too grainy, too dry or just not very tasty, and my husband kept saying he liked the commercial one better! I did start with dry chick peas, which were soaked overnight but then I boiled them as per your instuctions.
The result – extra creamy hummus – a great taste and a happy hubby :-)
thanks heaps
Wonderful hummus. I usually pressure cook batches of chickpeas, so no need to cook again. So smooth.
This is the best hummus. My co-workers are always hounding me to bring some in. So much better than store bought!
This was delicious. Only issue is it is a bit time consuming, but totally easy – or I could be doing it wrong. After I boiled canned garbanzo beans, the skins do come out, but you do have to pick the little skins out.
I would double the recipe because if you do the work, you might as well enjoy as much as you want! I finished it off easily in one seating…just me..:(
Followed directions came out great. Very smooth. It’s missing something taste wise from Sabra but this is good. Will help me find the taste I’m after thank you. Cooking (and I cleaned mine) them made a huge difference.
Best Hummus recipe ever! Reading the steps really helped make it work. Thank you!
Perfection. I made double batch yesterday and am about to make 3x today! My daughter said this is the best hummus she has had since being abroad in Jordan. Thank you!
First time making Hummus and it turned out amazing. I was a little worried about trying it because I don’t have a food processor, I did everything with my immersion blender and it still turned out super smooth and creamy. I will definitely be making this from now on instead of store bought, so much better for you. Next time I might try adding more garlic, yum!
This is the hummus perfection! I receive so many compliments every time I make it.
The hummus came out beautifully smooth, but I plan to change a couple of things in my next batch. I knew I’d regret it the moment that I dropped the cumin into the food processor. It overwhelms the other flavors, so I’ll lose that. And the Trader Joe’s tahini was very mild — to the point that it’s kind of lost — so I’ll up that amount or switch back to another brand.
Very easy to make and deliciously creamy!! I did not cook the chickpeas
So easy, perfect and identical to my favorite Greek takeout!
Blitzing the garlic with the lemon and leaving for 10mins is a game changer! I think I still prefer the chickpeas peeled, but I can’t always be bothered with that, so this works well.
Deliciously creamy. Is it possible to freeze some of this to eat later?
Best, most simple, and delicious Humus recipe!!!