7 Ways To Use Hummus In Everyday Cooking

Hummus is not something we think of as an ingredient. It's a dip, occasionally a sandwich spread, maybe you'll go crazy and use a potato chip instead of a pita one time. Its role beyond these options has been obstructed for no apparent reason. We will tolerate this no longer. Gone are the days of hummus as a dip; into the era of hummus as an ingredient we enter. It belongs not just on a plate or a charcuterie board, but in soups, pizzas, and pastas. Hummus is only limited by your view of it.

To upgrade this tried and true basic hummus recipe into a restaurant-quality hummus at home, a few ice cubes and a sprinkling of baking soda will do the trick. The former adds more air into your dip as you are blending it, resulting in a creamier and lighter emulsion; the latter breaks down the skin of the chickpeas as you are soaking them, making your end result smoother.

If plain hummus floats your boat no longer, then Max Sussman's lentil pistachio hummus will make you fall hard for it again. Of course, these everyday uses will also work with store bought hummus if you're in a pinch. All of them, however, will push your hummus horizons past where you ever thought they could go.

Hummus is bright, nutty, starchy, and rich, all qualities which enthusiastically nudge the dip to be used in a pasta sauce. The creaminess of hummus transfers wonderfully to a silky pasta sauce without needing to spend time at the stovetop building flavors. Simply add some pasta water, lemon juice, and a glug of oil or a few pats of butter to transform your hummus into a delicious resting place for your noodles. You can add other flavorings to your liking, of course; basil, parmesan, roasted red peppers, or anything that you would usually put in either pasta or hummus would go great in this hybrid dish.

That's not the only way to serve your pasta with some hummus. If you're going the gourmet route and making a single serving of pasta from scratch, head down the ravioli road and use hummus as the filling in your homemade pockets. It would go great with a light and lemony pasta sauce.

In perhaps one of the greatest discoveries in human history, you can use hummus in practically every component of a homemade burger. It makes a terrific Middle Eastern-leaning burger sauce on this awesome falafel burger recipe, spread onto the top bun so it oozes into the vegetarian patty below.

Alternatively, you can add some breadcrumbs or oats directly to your hummus, along with aquafaba, an egg-white-adjacent liquid from the chickpea can which helps bind the mixture together. For this mix into patties, and fry them as you would a regular burger. It's a hearty, vegan substitute for beef that repackages your favorite dip into a whole meal. Once again, feel free to mix-in some classic hummus partners like roasted red peppers, za'atar, or lemon zest.

One more miraculous option for the bread makers out there is to add hummus to your bread dough and bake it in your loaf pan or as round burger buns. While many burger buns are there for structure and appearance rather than taste, these will earn their place on the plate on their deliciousness alone.

Hummus is just a few steps away from a deep and complex vinaigrette, perfect for awesome salad recipes like an ancient grain seven vegetable superfood salad. To keep things simple, you can add Dijon mustard, olive oil, and some lemon juice to thin the hummus out into a dressing perfect for your greens and grains.

For something a little bit more complex, you can add sesame oil and honey so the flavor of hummus sings out from the rooftops proudly; maple syrup also goes great, as well as a clove of minced garlic. Since hummus is a bit of an emulsion itself, with acid and fat blended together with chickpeas, it takes the place of the usual salad dressing suspects like mayonnaise or sour cream. Hummus will make a seriously delicious vegan dressing, and no one will ever miss the eggs or cream.

Adding the word "dessert" to a dish that's only ever been savory will always elicit cries of disgust from any culinary originalists out there. Hummus is, of course, no exception. Whether or not chocolate is a gross hummus flavor is quite a vicious topic of debate among hummus truthers, but the best part about fervent food discourse is that you can stay home and decide what you like for yourself.

Chocolate is of course a very popular flavor; the nuttiness of tahini goes great with bitter cocoa powder and sweet maple syrup. Alternatively, you can add cinnamon sugar to your chickpea mix for a snickerdoodle take, or any number of salty-sweet flavor combinations.

Dessert hummus was quite the fad a decade ago, with the brand Delighted by Dessert Hummus taking the dip to new frontiers after an appearance on Shark Tank. These saccharine tubs were sold all over the country, perfect for those looking for a healthy treat. While the brand is no longer in stores, dessert hummus itself will forever be in our hearts.

Everyone loves hummus and pita together, but isn't it such a drag when you have to dip the pita in yourself? Skip that unfortunate production and make hummus pizza, a hybridized marvel that eliminates the universally-disliked ritual of dipping. Whether you've made your own basic pizza dough recipe or even bought a few balls from your local pizzeria, just spread some hummus on the stretched out round as you would any other sauce. Vegetables, roast chickpeas, or some warmly-spiced chicken would be killer as toppings.

If you're not sure we've pushed the pizza-hummus collaboration far enough, you better use your dipping fingers to hold onto your seats because this journey is just getting started. Rather than hummus on pizza, try pizza in hummus; add garlic, tomato paste, red pepper flakes, and herbs like basil and oregano to your hummus base for a pizza dip unlike any other. Un-topped pizza dough, once baked, would make a great substitute for pita here.

While most uses of hummus on this list concern its flavor, its structure and viscosity are most valuable when it comes to thickening soups and stews. It is non-dairy, of course, yet still adds a creaminess and body to a stew. It also skirts around the need for a potentially fussy roux, which is a combination of fat and flour cooked off before you add the broth in a stew. Usually, a roux is great for tightening up a brothy situation, but hummus will do the same in the time it takes you to pull it from the refrigerator.

At the same time, however, hummus adds a certain unplaceable nuance to your soups. Feel free to add any sort of flavored hummus, if that's what you're working with. A plain hummus might work best for a delicately flavored soup like chicken noodle; something like red pepper hummus could go great in a minestrone.

Though you may not immediately put hummus and eggs together, you'll quickly find they are perfect partners in crime if you give it a go. One such wicked pairing is in deviled eggs. Start making deviled eggs as you usually would — boiling the eggs and then removing the yolks — but instead of adding mayonnaise to the yolks, add a few heaping dollops of hummus. Its fatty bitterness brings a complexity that mayo lacks. The richness hummus brings is unmatched, and begs for a spicy hot sauce in the mix, as well.

Another egg in the hummus basket is a scrambled one. Mix together a creamy hummus into your beaten eggs and aim for a soft scramble. They will be nuttier than your average eggs, especially depending on how tahini-forward your dip is. But how oh so delicious they will be. Serve on pita bread for a deliciously simple breakfast.