You just can’t beat a satisfying hummus! With the ones that you really love it starts innocently enough – you’re picking at the bowl at a party, absent-mindedly scooping dollops with pita wedges while trying to balance your wine glass and hold a conversation all at the same time. Then your mind starts to wander… “wow, this is some creamy hummus…I love it when there’s lemon… and so light! Mmmmm I think I’ll have just a little more… crap, I finished the bowl. I hope no one noticed! I wonder if there’s more in the kitchen…”

Hummus is great because even non-cooks can easily make it themselves – it requires almost no skill at all. There is a lot of personal preference with hummus, which probably explains the dizzying array of flavor choices at the market. What makes absolutely no sense is the price that it fetches at stores. The laziest version of homemade hummus, which is the kind that involves chickpeas from a can (as opposed to soaking dry ones), costs only a couple bucks and is custom made to taste. 

I love roasted vegetables in my hummus, so my recipe starts with a pint of grape tomatoes and a couple cloves of garlic. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Smash 3-4 large garlic cloves with the flat side of a knife and remove the skins. 

Arrange the garlic and tomatoes on a baking sheet, drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Use your hands to ensure that the pieces are all covered completely with oil. Roast them for 12 minutes, or until the tomato skins are beginning to split.

Drain and rinse 1 can or two cups of soaked chickpeas.

Zest a lemon until you have a teaspoon of lemon zest. Be warned that this recipe is designed to appeal to those who enjoy a lot of lemon flavor in hummus. If you don’t, omit the zest completely and just add the lemon juice later in the recipe.

Take the roasted tomatoes and garlic out of the oven. With a pair of tongs, crush the tomatoes so all of their skins are broken. Flip everything over and return to the oven for another 5 minutes.

Put the chickpeas, roasted tomatoes and garlic, and lemon zest (optional) in the food processor. Squeeze the juice of one lemon through a strainer (or slotted spoon if your strainer has gone missing – as I have in photo) into the food processor. Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste and a jigger or two of olive oil.

Turn on the food processor and let it do its thing. If you like chunkier hummus, stop after a minute. If you like super creamy hummus (as I do), don’t be afraid to leave it in there for a long time. If it’s not pureeing as you would like it to, add more olive oil.

That’s pretty much it. Taste it to see if there is enough salt and if it is the right consistency and adjust accordingly.  We ended up eating this as a meal with a fresh loaf of bread that Brian made, a bottle of wine, and some cheeses we had lying around, but shhhhh, don’t tell our parents. It’s the kind of thing that they don’t want to know about their grown children. Only balanced meals are consumed in this household.

I mean, aren’t the four food groups wine, cheese, hummus, and bread? Oh, and chocolate salted caramels?

Roasted Tomato and Garlic Hummus

1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes

3-4 cloves garlic

2 cups chickpeas

1 lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon lemon zest

olive oil

salt and ground black pepper