Hummus Recipes - 3 Oriental Variations

Hummus is one of the most delicious Oriental dips that will definitely transform your dinners with friends and family into a success if prepared correctly. The classic recipe of hummus contains chickpeas, sesame paste or tahini, garlic, salt, cayenne pepper, and parsley. Depending on the different cuisines of the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, there are some variations to the traditional recipe that you may try to decide which one is your favorite.



The steps in the making of the hummus are also very similar: the boiled chickpeas, tahini pasta, salt, garlic, and a little bit of lemon juice, are to be added in the food processor and mixed until you get a thin or coarser paste, depending on your preferences. If you want the paste to be thinner and finer, you can add some extra water or vegetable broth to your ingredients in the processor. You need to leave the hummus paste cool down completely before consuming it, by keeping it either in the refrigerator or covered in a cold space of your kitchen.

The Lebanese recipe of hummus adds extra to the main ingredients, ground coriander, cumin, and black pepper. In the Lebanese tradition, hummus is usually used as an appetizer or as a side dish for meats.
The Turkish cuisine uses the same ingredients like the Lebanese one but adds extra freshly cut parsley and pine seeds slightly toasted to garnish the plate. The Turkish eat hummus as an appetizer together with traditional Turkish bread or toast.


In the Moroccan cuisine, a traditional dish of hummus is the one made with carrots. The carrots are boiled very well and added cut in pieces together with the other ingredients in the food processor. The Moroccan hummus with carrots has a sweeter more subtle flavor, and it is also used as an appetizer together with salads and other typical Mediterranean and Berber dishes.

In Cairo, and other parts of Egypt, as well as in some Greek islands of the Aegean Sea, hummus is prepared with fava beans instead of chickpeas. Fava is a type of bean that is sweeter than chickpeas and also has a more watery texture. In Santorini, hummus is prepared from the particular fava beans that grow just on the volcanic soil of the island. It is usually garnished with fresh thyme leaves and sprinkled with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil for extra flavor.

In all the recipes presented above, you can either use the fresh beans, soaked in water overnight so that you will not need to boil them for hours, or you can use the simpler version of the canned chickpeas, this way the time of preparation of the hummus dish being under one hour. When choosing the tahini paste you should also make sure that it does not have any other types of oils added, and you could choose preferably a type of tahini that is organic for extra flavor and an extra boost in your health.


If you do not plan to use it as an appetizer together with just Arab bread or toast, hummus goes very well along with spicy rice, baked potatoes or sweet potatoes, Eastern couscous and parsley salad – tabbouleh, or in any other combination that you may find flavorful and healthy. Be sure that once you include hummus in your dietary habits, a boost in your health will also be present together with the amazing symphony of flavors.

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