Loaded Hummus - Six Hungry Feet - Recipes - Vegan (2024)

Some years ago we discovered how easy and tasty it was to make hummus at home. Recently, we discovered that hummus can be converted into a main dish when you load it with your favourite toppings.

Loaded Hummus is a simple recipe that can be served at home as a quick and yummy weekday night dinner or brought to a family or friends gathering as an appetizer. Believe me, everyone will be amazed!

To prepare this dish, we chose to make roasted carrot hummus. Loaded hummus can be made with your favourite type of hummus, whether it's the traditional hummus, this roasted carrot hummus, a yummy Roasted red pepper hummus or even a colourful plater with a beautiful Beetroot Hummus. The key is to choose the right balance of flavour and textures when making loaded hummus.

Our loaded hummus is vegan and gluten-free, which makes it a perfect dish to please everyone. During the autumn and winter season, we prefer loading our hummus with warm roasted veggies and serving it with toasted Pita Bread. If you are making this recipe during the summer months, you may want to use raw and seasonal ingredients.

How to make the perfect Hummus from scratch

There is no better hummus than homemade hummus. It's such a simple dip to make that once you learn how to prepare it properly, you won't be buying it again.

In order to make hummus at home, you'll need a food processor. If you enjoy cooking, you'll probably already have one, if you are starting to cook more at home, you should definitely invest in one, as you will be using it almost daily and if you are not sure about getting one, you can always use a hand blender for now! If you are looking for a good food processor, we can recommend the one we have at home, as it's been with us for years and we are really happy with it!

How to get a silky smooth hummus

To make extra smooth hummus, the best way (not the fastest) is to remove the skin from the chickpeas. If you have extra time and extra help, go for it! This will bring a silky smooth texture to your dip.

Another little trick is to add cold water while blending the chickpeas. Just a little bit, to keep the consistency of the hummus but adding some extra creaminess to the dish.

Ingredients

Chickpeas. Soak overnight dry chickpeas and cook them before using them for the hummus or use canned/jar chickpeas. We buy organic jarred chickpeas and we love the flavour. Make sure you use good quality chickpeas as it makes a huge difference in the taste of your hummus. To make extra smooth hummus, the best way (not the fastest) is to remove the skin from the chickpeas. If you have extra time and extra help, go for it!

Carrots. For this recipe, we use roasted carrots. Simply bake the carrots for 30 minutes and they will be ready to go in your hummus. You can skip this ingredient when making traditional hummus, or swap it for another veggie of your choice.

Tahini. Sesame seed paste, that’s all tahini is. This paste will give your hummus a delicious tangy flavour. Some people are not a fan of tahini, and you can always reduce the amount of tahini or leave it out of your hummus if that is the case.

Cumin. We use cumin to flavour this hummus. You can use other spices of your choice. Cumin is a basic spice when cooking middle eastern food.

Lemon juice. Use fresh lemon juice if possible.

Olive oil. For your hummus, you want to use the best olive oil you have at home. We love using our friend’s olive oil that he gets from his olive trees, the flavour is incredible. When you live in Spain, you cannot cook with cheap flavourless olive oil, that could be considered a crime.

Garlic. The garlic cloves are uncooked so if you are not a big fan of that raw garlicky taste, use half a garlic clove or consider leaving it out. If you love your garlic, then the more the merrier!

Method

Add all your ingredients into the food processor or blender and blend until smooth. While blending, slowly add a small amount of cold water to get a perfectly smooth consistency.

Load your Hummus with Toppings

To load our roasted carrot hummus we used a combination of roasted veggies, roasted pine nuts and fresh mint.

Toppings to load our Roasted Carrot Hummus

• Roasted Cauliflower
• Roasted Parsnips
• Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
• Roasted Onion
• Roasted Broccoli
• Roasted Pine Nuts
• Fresh Mint

To prepare the toppings, add the cauliflower, parsnips, cherry tomatoes and onion on a baking tray. We added some spices such as cumin, Raz el Hanout and black pepper to flavour the veggies. You can use a silicone baking mat to make sure the ingredients won't stick to the bottom. Bake for about 20 minutes at 180Cº and then add the broccoli and pine nuts. Bake for further 10-12 minutes and serve on the top of your hummus. Before serving, add some fresh mint to give your hummus a fresh taste.

You can load your hummus with any ingredients of your choice. Roasted veggies and toasted nuts go especially good during those cold days. During summer, we would recommend using raw ingredients such as carrots, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and olives. You can add seeds, nuts, and fresh herbs of your choice.

To load the hummus is the fun part, and the more creative you get, the better. It makes the dish your own and you can change it around every time with seasonal ingredients.

Serving Suggestions

Loaded hummus is the perfect dish to bring to a party or a family or friends gathering. It can be served as an appetizer or a great snack. Prepare some Pita Bread to serve with the hummus, so people can dip in.

At home, we love serving it as a main dish during busy weekdays. We prepare the hummus in the morning or the day before, and we just need to prepare the toppings in the evening. The hummus will stay good if you keep it in the fridge for a couple of days, so you could prepare it in advanced.

Snack Boards. We love creating cheese and cracker boards when having people over. The centrepiece would be this delicious roasted carrot loaded hummus and then we add different cheese, crackers, fresh pesto, olives, fresh fruit, pickles, nuts and the list goes on as long as it fits on the board.

If you have any leftover hummus, you can keep it in an air-tight container in the fridge for about 4-5 days. Keep the roasted veggies in a separate container.